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A new project–Adult Care

BLOG NOTE: To view the Adult Care site containing John Clanton’s photos, videos and stories by Ron Jackson, click here.

In March of 2009 I got a call from a contact. I’d photographed people in her family for an assignment about a year before, and I’d talked to her once or twice, so I guess she found my business card and called. Her concern was not for her and her son, a man in his 40s who is developmentally disabled, but for the people her son spent his days with. Through a few interviews and phone conversations, not just with her and her son, but with other people involved, a larger story started appearing.

So, since about April I’ve been working on and off on a story about adult day centers in Oklahoma. As I quickly found out, a story about adult day centers is complicated. I used to sit down with Jackie Parks, the executive director at Metropolitan Better Living Center, and ask her to tell me all she could. I wanted to understand the issue, but I also wanted to see if there was really a story here. Maybe there wouldn’t be.

One day, between my usual photo assignments for the newspaper, I stopped in to see Jackie. I said, “How’s it going?” Jackie paused for a moment and then started to cry. That’s when I knew I had a good story.

When I look for a story, I look for things that interest me—subjects I want to know more about or that I’m curious about. I figure if I’m interested in it, then at least a few of our readers might be too. The more I started to learn about adult day care, the more I realized what an important story I’d stumbled onto.

After working for a while by myself, I brought in one of my favorite reporters, Ron Jackson, to work with me. I was going to need help getting a handle on it. Over the last few months we’ve talked with advocates like Mary Brinkley, administrators like Bill Weaver and Jackie Parks, DHS workers Lance Robertson, Eleanor Kurtz and Brenda Lambeth, and the clients, Michael, a 38-year-old man with cerebral palsy and Clyde Coulter, who needs 24-hour care and who is cared for by his son and daughter.

The issue is complicated. In a nutshell, adult day care centers take care of elderly and developmentally disabled people during the day, allowing their caregivers to work, run errands, or maybe just take a break. They feed the clients, help them in the bathroom, provide games, activities, and field trips during the work day.

Here’s where it gets complicated—funding. There are a variety of revenue streams that fund these places, including the Department of Human Services, Veterans affairs, DDSD or Developmentally Disabled Services Division, private funding and charitibale organizations like United Way. Right now, it costs $45 per person, per day to run an adult day care. At least that’s what they are reimbursed from DHS for people who qualify.

Nursing homes offer a much more comprehensive level of care, and they are reimbursed an average of $122 per day. That $45 a day rate is based on a 6-hour day, but the centers are often open at least 8, and sometimes up to, 10 hours a day. On top of that, due to the economy, there was a 1% cut to the DHS department that deals with adult day centers, and there are more on the way. And there are less than 40 adult day centers in Oklahoma. Of the state’s 77 counties, only 19 have adult day centers.

One of the advocates I talked with said something interesting: aging is something we all have to deal with. There are few issues that will, at some point, affect everybody; but this is one of them. At some point, our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or ourselves are going to need care. So it’s a conversation worth starting.

Ron’s job is to write the stories and get through all the numbers and facts. My job is to tell this story with pictures and video, but we’re both basically trying to put a face on the issue. I chose to photograph Michael to start out. He’s not elderly, but he needs 24-hour care. His mother sends him to the day center because she has to stay home with her daughter, who is also disabled. To offer a completely different approach to caring for loved ones, I photographed Clyde, who needs 24-hour care after a surgery and a resulting staph infection left him in a wheelchair. To explain the nuts and bolts of the issue, I videotaped Ron’s interviews with the people who know it best—DHS workers, administrators and a representative to the state House of Representatives.

You can see the complete online presentation that we came up with for this story at this link or you can watch the individual slideshows about Michael Avila and Clyde Coulter.

-John Clanton

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People On Sundays-Michael

I met Michael Avila toward the end of April, 2009, and I started photographing him in June for a project that will publish soon. Michael has cerebral Palsy. He lives with his mother and sister, who is also disabled, in Midwest City, Ok., but he spends his days at the Metropolitan Better Living Center in northeast Oklahoma City.

At his home in Midwest City, Michael plays with his toys in front of the television and looks up occasionally to watch a scene from Kindergarten Cop. When a neighbor comes by the house to visit, Michael backs toward him laughing, and hoping for a pat on the back or a hug.

-John Clanton

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Veterans Day assignments

Here are a few photographs from Veterans Day assignments around Oklahoma City on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009.

If you’d like to see a gallery of more photos, click here.

For more Veterans Day photos, click here.

-John Clanton

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Suspect in Custody

Staff Photographer Jim Beckel left the office on Tuesday morning looking for weather art. Less than five minutes later, he heard an interesting call over his police scanner.  Here’s what Jim wrote in his cutlines:

“Headquarters, Suspect in Custody.”   Police officers converged on a northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood Tuesday morning, Nov. 10, 2009,  after responding to a call of a suspicious subject. Officers said the subject then ran from them and attempted to break into an occupied residence. After searching door to door, looking in trash carts, parked cars, back yards and behind fences, an officer spotted the suspect hiding between houses near NW 81 and Harvey Place. The man ran again, sprinting across a park and into the back yards of neighboring homes. Within 5 minutes, the officer in pursuit radioed to headquarters that the suspect was in custody. He was arrested in the 300 block of NW 79, just a few blocks from where he was originally sighted.

Jim ended up with interesting pictures and an exciting morning,  but we still don’t have any weather art.

-John Clanton

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Where the Buffalo roam

Last week, Staff Photographer David McDaniel travelled to Pawhuska to photograph the Buffalo Roundup on the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve. In addition to getting still images for the newspaper, David produced this video for NewsOK.com.

-John Clanton

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Pictures I like

Looking through our archives at the pictures The Oklahoman staff photographers have turned in over the past 7 days, I realized that a few of my favorites were a good representation of the assignments we see in an average week. Sports, everything from high school to professional, features, news and a more in-depth feature.

-John Clanton

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James Nachtwey visits Oklahoma

James Plumlee and I were worried that we hadn’t left Oklahoma City early enough to get good seats. As we opened the doors of Te Ata Memorial Auditorium on the USAO campus, we relaxed a bit. We were an hour early and were the first ones there. James Nachtwey, one of the greatest war and conflict photographers of all time, was speaking at USAO in Chickasha, Okla. Nate Billings had heard about the free event on NPR and we threw together a group of photographers including Sarah Phipps, Chris Landsberger, Nate, myself and former staff photographer James Plumlee to drive to Chickasha. We sat on the front row and talked while the entire auditorium filled up behind us. Nachtwey opened his speech by saying that this was his first time to visit Oklahoma.

If you’re reading Alternate Crop, you’re either related to a staff photographer at The Oklahoman or you have at least a passing interest in photography. Either way, you should be familiar with James Nachtwey’s work. There was a documentary about him called War Photographer. And he’s one of the founding members of VII Photo Agency. I’ve seen the movie, poured over his books and I keep the VII website bookmarked on my computers, but hearing the stories first hand and seeing the pictures on a big screen gave me plenty to think about. We hung around afterward, met Nachtwey and asked a couple of questions. I asked him if we could buy him dinner or coffee.

Every description I type and re-type about his presentation seems inadequate. Nachtwey’s photographs are heart-wrenching and inspiring. His stories from seeing war and famine around the world are chilling, but I think I liked his thoughts on journalism the best. He talked about journalists being involved in the community, locally or overseas, and about contributing to society by highlighting problems in our communities. I’m glad the five of us made the trip to USAO in Chickasha. He said, no, by the way, to dinner. I told him we’d do it the next time he came to Oklahoma.

-John Clanton

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