Wednesday, December 27, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
21
Mentally ill: Working to balance rights, safety Be cautious on trails
treatment law in the short be feasible today, he said.
By Molly Harbarger
The Oregonian/OregonLive
PORTLAND (AP) —
Winter can be lethal to people
without shelter. Last year in
Portland, the combination of
homelessness, freezing tem-
peratures, and mental illness
took four lives.
As temperatures drop
and the wind chill sharpens,
debates are reigniting over
how best to balance the civil
liberties and the safety of peo-
ple whose mental conditions
render them unable to make
good decisions.
In Oregon, with a popula-
tion of 4 million, about 600
people are required to receive
treatment for mental illness
against their will each year.
That is a low rate compared
with that of other states.
A workgroup of judges,
mental health advocates,
police and state lawmakers is
trying to revise those rules to
allow officials the latitude to
ensure that fewer people like
Karen Batts die on the streets.
Batts grew up in Portland
a vivacious, friendly teen-
ager and Rose Festival prin-
cess. As she entered her 20s,
she was slowly overtaken by
delusions and paranoia due to
schizophrenia. Family mem-
bers repeatedly tried to help
her. But they were often frus-
trated by obstacles to ensur-
ing she took her medicine and
received treatment because
she never qualified for civil
commitment, they said.
Her case, profiled in The
O re g o n i a n / O r e g o n L i v e ,
was one the state workgroup
looked at when weighing
changes to state law to bet-
ter serve severely mentally ill
people.
In addition to Batts, five
other people died in the cold
winter including Zachary A.
Young, 29, who had mental
illness and slept in the woods.
Mark Elliot Johnson, 51, and
David Guyot, 68, also died
outside in the cold.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a
Democrat who represents
south Lane County and north
Douglas County, said he
might introduce a small set
of tweaks to the involuntary
February 2018 session. But
the workgroup is mostly
focused on a broader bill for
2019.
Prozanski worked as a
district attorney’s office and
is the chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee. He said
that backdrop informs his
view of ways the law could be
strengthened — but also show
restraint.
“We want to do the right
thing, and part of the right
thing is we don’t overre-
act where you don’t take
someone’s liberties away,”
Prozanski said.
That balance has been
the fulcrum for the narrow
guidelines Oregon uses now.
Groups that advocate for the
rights of people with men-
tal illness like the National
Alliance on Mental Illness are
also present in these discus-
sions, saying that in the past,
involuntary treatment laws
were too broad. Those allowed
states to keep people who
could take care of themselves
in hospitals indefinitely, and
even now, that many people
who experience a psychotic
break or mental health crisis
are stigmatized and should be
provided services rather than
locked away.
Bill Osborne heads a
Multnomah County team of
master’s level mental health
workers who investigate up to
4,000 cases a year of people
recommended for involun-
tary commitment. His team
receives “notices of mental
illness” from a hospital which
indicate someone is being held
there for five days. Before that
time is up, Osborne’s team
must review police records,
court documents and inter-
view friends and family mem-
bers to determine whether to
go before a judge and ask that
the person be committed.
About 10 percent of those
cases end up before a judge,
and the overwhelming major-
ity are sent to longer-term
treatment against their will.
That work has been refined
over time to account for
Appeals Court rulings. Cases
Osborne might have approved
for trial in the past wouldn’t
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“We’ve definitely seen a
narrowing of the definitions.
They’ve talked about what
clear and convincing evi-
dence is, how the state is not
supposed to be paternalistic
and tell them how to live,”
Osborne said. “It’s made our
job one of really making we
have a strong case to move
forward.”
D u r i n g t h e w i n t e r,
Osborne’s team is allowed to
use the weather as a justifi-
cation to put people into the
Oregon State Hospital or keep
them there. This past win-
ter, Osborne factored in the
fact that some of the people
he investigated were under-
dressed for the weather and
sleeping in a tent when he
made his case to a judge.
Cases like Batts’, though,
haunt him and his team. They
reviewed her files after read-
ing about her death and found
that, while they had dealt with
her in the past, they hadn’t
seen her in a long time. But,
without her being referred
to their office, he can’t say
where the system failed her.
in burned areas
Most National Forest
lands within the Milli Fire
area are open to public
access. However, some trails
and roads remain closed
due to hazardous trees and
trail treads damaged by fire-
related erosion.
Currently, most trails
in the fire area are open,
the Sisters Ranger District
reports. However, the Forest
Service does not fall stand-
ing dead trees along trails.
Forest users should use
extreme caution when enter-
ing burned areas and should
expect many trees fallen
across the trails next spring
before trail crews can clear
them.
The popular McKenzie
Highway (242) is open for
winter recreation, includ-
ing snowmobiles. In win-
ter, the route is closed to
vehicles. The Sisters Ranger
District advises that winter
users should use extreme
caution, particularly in the
Black Crater area, which
burned with high inten-
sity on steep slopes. This
fire behavior created a
high risk for falling trees
and limbs, landslides, and
avalanches.
The Cross-District
Snowmobile Trail, Bluegrass
Loop Snowmobile Trail,
McKenzie Highway 242
are all open to over-the-
snow travel only. A portion
of the Upper Cross-District
Snowmobile Trail from the
junction of Bluegrass loop
(junction 518), south to
the junction with the Cross
District Trail (junction
519A) is closed.
The District has miti-
gated danger trees along
18 miles of road within the
Milli Fire area. Roads are
not maintained for winter
access.
For specific information
on trail status and conditions,
contact the Sisters Ranger
District at 541-549-7700.
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