Support for Jenkins

Dear Editor,

I give my full support to Jeff Jenkins as Columbia County Sheriff. As a population health nurse in this community there is an identified need for collaborating individuals in positions of decision making and policy that will help address the population health needs of our rural health community. There are multiple barriers in serving rural communities ie: outsourced resources, lower socioeconomic status, and an over representation of elderly population. Palliative care/population health have started hosting monthly multidisciplinary team meetings to address some of these challenges in our community concerning mental health/ addiction etc. Participating in Multidisciplinary team meetings have shown me that they are pointless without a strong working team effort.

I have had the opportunity to work with deputy Jeff Jenkins on several challenging cases. Jeff Jenkins was instrumental in saving a man’s life late last year related to legislation restricting police response to mental health/ medical crisis.

Jeff was able to think outside of the box around these barriers to collaboratively address the crisis and I have seen him do this multiple times in other cases. Critical thinking in this capacity is exactly what this community requires from its leaders so that we can better serve our region and community. We have so many barriers already that it is time to work together as a team without boundaries or limits to serve our rural community.

This is the reason I support Jeff Jenkins.

Theresa Eier Palliative care RN

Dayton, WA