With unique emergency unit
iMMM
County jail to institute mental help
Second in a series on the Lane
County jail system.
By KEN HASWELL
Of the Emerald
In 1975 there was no 24-hour
emergency mental health com
munity service. Today, the Lane
County facility boasts such a pro
gram, for those committed in
voluntarily.
The Mental Health Emergency
Unit, unique to the state, is ex
pected to open in the new county
jail in mid-March.
The unit is unique because it is
built in the jail and will not be staf
fed by corrections personnel but
by Lane County Mental Health
personnel. The unit will provide
emergency treatment for both
voluntary and involuntary com
mitments as well as for alcohol de
toxification.
The unit was first suggested in
1975 when county corrections re
quested Lane County Mental
Health to find some way to care for
individuals who were jailed for
their own protection.
Program Manager Lester Gag
non says some police officers ar
rested people for non-criminal of
fenses, such as emotional distur
bances that threatened the indi
vidual and possibly others. He
says the police knew the facilities
were unable to handle individuals
with alcoholic or emotional prob
lems. but felt a responsibility to
protect the individual. An
8-by-10-foot cell was not the place
for these people Gagnon says.
Corrections, stuck with the
non-criminal offenders, ap
proached mental health asking for
counselors who could also help
jail inmates and who could con
duct psychological evaluations for
the county court system.
Gagnon says the unit will pro
vide services the present jail can
not. such as mental health treat
ment to inmates suffering from the
duress of incarceration (being
jailed).
Also, he says, the unit will save
transportation costs to the Oregon
State Hospital in Salem for court
ordered psychological evaiua
Arab students
to demonstrate
Members of the Organization of
Arab Students in the U S and
Canada will travel to Portland this
morning to demonstrate against
what they call "the Zionist Israeli
ideology that advocates and prac
tices racial discrimination against
non-Jewish people and forcefully
evicted Palestinians from their
homes. ”
The group will show the film Re
volution Until Victory at noon
Thursday and co-sponsor a
discussion-forum with the Iranian
student union Thursday at 7 p.m.
m the EMU, room to be posted.
Forum representatives will dis
cuss the historical background on
Zionism and the Camp David a
greement between Pres. Carter,
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin and Egyptian Pres. Anwar
Sadat.
Sharif Muhammad of the Arab
student organization says the
forum is pert of a week of activities
that will call attention to "policies
of the expansionist colonial state
of Israel and the Camp David a
greement, which denies the in
alienable rights of the Palestinian
people for total liberation and the
establishment of a Democratic
secular state in Palestine for all
religions.”
tions. He adds that people have to
wait in jail until the OSH has room
for them to undergo a 30-day
evaluation before trial.
The unit will allow immediate
evaluations thus relieving the
county court system of its backlog.
The unit's alcohol detoxification
center will provide treatment
rather than providing a night in the
drunk tank as was done in the
past.
After a person's initial crisis (in
non-criminal cases) the person
will be referred to a physician or to
some community organization
such as Whitebird for further
treatment.
Gagnon says community
oriented programs seem to help
people more than does sending
them to larger institutions.
The unit housed on the ground
floor of the new jail, consists of 16
patient rooms and four isolation
rooms, two of which will be pad
ded.
The unit will also have a room
for group interviews and a day
room for the inmates. Gagnon
says inmates with mental distur
bances will recover faster if they
are not confined to a cell ail day
Upon showing stability, the inmate
will be allowed to use the day
room, which will have TV and
cardtables.
The unit was built for about
$700,000 and will cost approxi
mately $500,000 a year to oper
ate. Gagnon says the unit will be
required by law to charge inmates
for its services, which wiH help pay
for the support needs (heat, laun
dry and food from the jail) received
from the county
He says that in the case of in
mates who cannot afford to pay,
the county will pay half of the bill
and the state will pay the other
half.
“By law we (the county) are re
quired to provide service, and we
win make every attempt possible
to recover — to bring in to the
county — as many dollars as pos
sible to cover those costs,' Gag
non says.
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