OREGON
8A — THE OBSERVER
THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2021
Lawmakers seek more mental health funding
By DIRK VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — The Oregon
Legislature is getting ready
to pass the largest invest-
ment in the state’s mental
health system in recent
memory — a develop-
ment that advocates and
lawmakers say could lead
to meaningful changes
in a system that has been
unable to meet
demand.
In a
package likely
to reach at
least $350
million, law-
Nosse
makers are
hoping to pay
for a “surge”
in workers
available
to address
mental health
Lieber
issues at all
levels, spring
for new housing and out-
reach programs, and take a
long look at how the state’s
overall system should be
restructured.
That investment, pro-
ponents say, will allow
Oregon to begin digging
out of a mental health
and homelessness crisis
thrown into stark relief by
the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s not going to all
roll out smoothly or awe-
somely, but we’re going
to get started,” said state
Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Port-
land, who co-chairs a
budget subcommittee
dealing with health care.
“We’ll all hopefully look
back four to six years from
now and go, ‘2021 was the
year things started to turn
around.’”
The problems facing
Oregon’s mental health
system are not new. Advo-
cates have long argued
that the state needs to
fund more treatment at the
community level, rather
than waiting for people
with mental health issues
to devolve to the point
they need higher levels of
care or hospitalization.
But that type of
extended investment
hasn’t occurred. Two years
ago, lawmakers even con-
sidered cutting funds
for county-based mental
health programs based
on modeling many found
dubious.
In the meantime, Ore-
gon’s unsheltered home-
less population has
increased, with many in
that population struggling
with mental health issues.
The Oregon State Hos-
pital is also overwhelmed
with criminal defen-
dants deemed unfi t to “aid
and assist” in their own
defense, and who a court
order requires the hos-
COVID-19
Oregon 65K shots shy
of lifting mandates
Oregon Health
Authority
averaging 13,484
shots per day
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
EO Media Group, File
The Oregon State Hospital is also overwhelmed with criminal defendants deemed unfi t to “aid and assist”
in their own defense, and who a court order requires the hospital to treat in short order.
pital to treat in short order.
The explosion in that pop-
ulation has crowded out
other, potentially more
appropriate, cases the
hospital could treat, and
comes amid a dire staffi ng
shortage brought on by the
pandemic.
In oft-cited — and
sometimes disputed —
national rankings by the
group Mental Health
America, Oregon’s mental
health system comes in
49 out of 51, a function of
having the nation’s highest
prevalence of mental ill-
ness, and only middle-of-
the-pack access to care.
“Not only do we not
have any off -ramps before
people get there, we’ve got
people stuck at the state
hospital because there are
no step-downs” to less-in-
tensive care, said state
Sen. Kate Lieber, D-Bea-
verton, who has been
working with Nosse to
create a funding package
this year.
Lieber is a former prose-
cutor who came to the Leg-
islature this year having
served on the state’s Psy-
chiatric Security Review
Board, which decides when
people found “guilty except
for insanity” are fi t to leave
the state hospital. She says
she ran for offi ce with an
interest in fi guring out how
the mental health system
interacted with rising
homelessness.
Large areas of need
Together with Nosse,
Lieber began speaking
with people throughout
the mental health system
about the largest areas of
needs. “We talked to a ton
of people, and it was like
we were hearing the same
thing: gotta invest in com-
munity,” she said.
The exercise could have
been little more than a
thought experiment, but
then the state saw a wind-
fall. Not only did the federal
government send Oregon
$2.6 billion through the
American Rescue Plan Act
passed in March, but a May
revenue forecast suggested
the state had billions more
dollars to spend than previ-
ously expected.
So when Nosse and
Lieber put together a formal
budget proposal, “I think
people were ready to hear
it,” Lieber said. “And quite
frankly, we had the money
to do it.”
While the numbers are
still subject to the overall
budget process, lawmakers
working on a spending plan
say it will likely be roughly
$350 million.
“This is a really big
swing,” Nosse said. “I’ve
never been involved with
anything this massive.”
As currently envisioned,
the fi rst piece is the roughly
$100 million “surge” meant
to help incentivize people
to go into behavioral health
professions — and remain
there — through scholar-
ships, student loan forgive-
ness, and other induce-
ments. A bill drafted by
state Rep. Janelle Bynum,
D-Clackamas, to increase
diversity in the state’s
behavioral health work-
force is the vehicle for that
investment.
A second piece would
put money into new housing
and treatment options for
people with mental health
challenges. As laid out by
Lieber and Nosse, the state
would put $20 million into
a new fund specifi cally for
behavioral health housing.
And the Legislature would
set aside up to $180 million
in a “regional development
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and innovation” pot reserved
for community mental
health agencies, which could
apply for funding their most
pressing needs.
The proposal also con-
tains money to open two
units at the Oregon State
Hospital’s campus in Junc-
tion City for people who
need less than hospital-level
care. The new capacity
would free up bed space
in the main hospital, law-
makers say.
And the package would
potentially fund four “peer
respite centers” run by
people with a lived expe-
rience of mental illness,
along with helping pay
for community behavioral
health clinics that can assist
with physical ailments
while also being treated for
mental health challenges.
The proposal by Nosse
and Lieber appears all but
certain to pass this year,
with the state’s top budget
writers affi rming their sup-
port. That has advocates
who’ve long pushed for
more investment talking
with a new optimism.
SALEM — Oregon
needs just over 65,000
more people to get their
fi rst COVID-19 vacci-
nation shot for the state
to lift most restrictions
statewide.
“We are incredibly
close to achieving a 70%
statewide adult vacci-
nation rate, bringing us
closer to returning to a
sense of normalcy,” Gov.
Kate Brown said in a
statement Tuesday, June
15.
The Oregon Health
Authority said 65,484
more shots were needed
as of mid-day to pass 70%
of eligible adult residents
having received one shot.
OHA reported it was
averaging 13,484 shots
per day, which includes
each shot of the two-shot
Moderna and Pfi zer vac-
cines, as well as the one-
shot Johnson & Johnson
vaccine.
Half of all Oregon’s eli-
gible adults are now com-
pletely vaccinated, OHA
also reported.
The daily totals are
down sharply from April,
when the state topped
50,000 shots on its biggest
vaccination days.
Demand for vacci-
nations has slowed in
the past month, as those
eager to be vaccinated
against the virus have
been served. What’s left
is residents for whom vac-
cination is inconvenient
or who have doubts about
getting the shots.
Oregon Republi-
cans have been crit-
ical of Brown’s approach
throughout most of the
pandemic, despite the
state’s low infection and
death rates compared to
most of the rest of the
nation.
Critics say restric-
tions have unnecessarily
hamstrung the Oregon
economy as other states
had fewer or sometimes
no restrictions. Now
Brown is being cast as out
of step even with Demo-
cratic governors in Cali-
fornia and Washington.
House Minority
Leader Christine Drazan,
R-Canby, released a public
letter to Brown on June 15
calling for her to follow
the example of Cali-
fornia, where Gov. Gavin
Newsom opened the state
to most activities.
“Oregon does not need
to be the most restrictive
state on the West Coast,
or one of the last states
to reopen nationwide,”
Drazan wrote.
Citing vaccines,
improved medical treat-
ment for infections, and
the “natural immunity”
of those who contracted
COVID-19 and survived,
Drazan said there were
enough safeguards to lift
restrictions immediately.
“If we include Ore-
gonians with natural
immunity, then we are
well above the 70 per-
cent threshold to reopen
the state,” Drazan wrote.
“Oregonians have been
through enough. They do
not need to wait another
day.”
The range of restric-
tions diff ers from county
to county in Oregon as
Brown has taken steps to
remove limits in areas that
have put at least one shot
into the arms of 65% of
eligible adult residents.