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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 10, 2011)
Street roots 9 June 10, 2011 UNSOUND, from page 8 John Kitzhaber. “I’ve never seen a patient at the state hospital more empowered to speak on their own behalf than at this session,” Bouneff says. “I really, really hope that we will have systemic change,” Kirby says. “Most people get completely defeated (here).” But HB2701 has sat in the House Rules Committee since late April. Opponents say additional staff are required to ensure assessments are given within the specified time frame. Called “unimplementable,” it will likely die this session. SB420 has some traction. It received a public hearing on May 31 in the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Safety but came under multiple objections from the Oregon District Attorneys Association and the Oregon Psychiatric Association. Advocates say HB 3100, as Bouneff puts it, “does so very little.” Buckley estimates approximately 15 to 20 people at the hospital - out of almost 700 —have committed misdemeanors and Class C felonies. Bouneff and Joondeph introduced amendments to the bill to deal with " the hospital’s “back door,” or how patients, once at the hospital, are eventually released. They were rejected, and SB 420 and HB 2701 were crafted. SB 420 would take away the PSRB’s jurisdiction of hospital’s patients and give it to the Oregon Health Authority. The PSRB would continue to have jurisdiction over conditionally released patients. Originally applying to all patients, a compromise was reached to exclude patients who committed Measure 11 crimes — violent person crimes. They would continue to be under the board’s r. Joseph Bloom, a psychiatrist at jurisdiction, should the bill pass. Oregon Health & Science The hospital’s doctors and University, criticized the SB420 clinicians, not the PSRB, would determine when hearings are held, and because it doesn’t specify the hearing t procedure that the Oregon Health when patients are released^ “The Authority would follow before releasing hospital (would have) some control a patient. “It should not leave over who comes in and leaves. Right everything up to administrative rule now, they have no control,” Bouneff [making],” he said. says. Mazaratto, who believes the PSRB The argument is that the doctors needs to change to allow patients to be and clinicians working with the released more often, surprisingly hospital’s patients are the people best agrees. He,calls the legislation “a big to decide whether an individual’s gamble” because it doesn’t fully mental illness is managed and they áre address what giving jurisdiction to the capáble of living independently. Health Authority would look like. “Will “It isn’t the board’s expertise to people be entitled to counsel?” he know when a person needs hospital asks. “Who will be there on the board? level care,” Joondeph says. “What Would it be just the superintendent? PSRB’s expertise is in is supervising Who would pick these people?” people intcpmmumty~settfngs.” ! Letting the hospital decide who’s “It’s Senate Bill 420 that would released may actually backfire. “This benefit patients the most,” Goldstein hospital has had some very believes. conservative superintendents who A third measure, House Bill 2701, were very fearful of any kind of liability would require the hospital and really went out of their way to superintendent to notify the PSRB discourage releases,” Mazaratto said. when a patient is ready for release; There’s also a potential conflict of Once the PSRB receives that notice, interest. The Oregon Health Authority they have 60 days to hold a hearing is responsible for the Hospital’s and conditionally release the patient^ • budget, meaning that hearings may The bill also requires the Oregon become budget-driven. Health Authority to prepare treatment “The protection of the public will plans and clinical assessments, and not be the primary concern,” Buckley appropriate timelines for providing said. “(And) it’s not an independent treatment and assessment. review.” Patients, once at the hospital, Hovering like a specter over the already are given three assessments, hearing was the fear that public safety for health, drug and alcohol and risk. will be compromised, that the But when they are given, patients^ and hospital’s patients are dangerous advocates say, is not standardized, criminals that, once released, could which directly affects a patient’s destabilize and once again offend. treatment plan. “These are our most dangerous Goldstein says he was given the risk people^” said Elizabeth Cushwa, the assessment within two weeks of executive director of the district coming to the Hospital. But getting the attorney’s association; a t the hearing. other two took a year and a half. “I Despite the compromise concerning didn’t even know about them for the Measure 11 offenders, h e r first year,” he says. organization and other public safety Kirby and Goldstein have become organizations continue opposing the forceful patient advocates in favor of bill. the two bills. They have met with “Why do you want to change multiple state legislators, testified in something that has been successful for front of policy committees, and 33 years and has a two percent Collected over 100 signatures of recidivism rate?” Sen. Joanne Verger patients in a letter sent to Governor ■ asked Joondeph during the hearing. “We think (the board) has been overly restrictive, and this has been a detriment in terms of the amount of time people have to spend in the hospital,” he responded. Buckley strongly disagrees that the PSRB intentionally keeps patients in the State Hospital longer than needed. “People should only be in the hospital for as long as necessary,? she says. “We don’t deny that there are people right now who could be out.” What a patient’s release depends on, she says, is whether resources are available at the community level, She points to five years between 2003 and 2008 when the Additions and Mental , Health Division funded and created more resources at the community level, The PSRB released an additional 104 people to the community, a 40 percent increase. “That was a significant upsurge correlated directly with the increase in community resources,” she said. Matarazzo and others are skeptical that the existence of community beds solely drives the PSRB’s decisions. Matarazzo says that mariy beds designated for PSRB patients are used for other mentally ill populations, because the PSRB does not use them. “They were lost te a bigger systeni,” he says, calling it “one of the greatest tragedies” concerning how the PSRB works. irby came to the Hospital two years ago suffering from severe depression and a drug addiction. While under the throes of his mental illness, he committed a Class A Felony, Burglary I. He says he regained control overTiis depression the fitst six to eight weeks he was at the hospital. He is also recovering from his addiction. “I am completely grateful for my stay here,” he says. But he may end up staying at the hospital for another 18 years — the maximum prison sentence for his crime, sentencing guidelines the PSRB also follows, unless a patient is released earlier. “One wou[d think that because this is a hospital, you receive treatment, then you are discharged. It’s just not that way,” Goldstein says. “You’re in ‘ such a hopeless situation with, such an insanely long sentence.” Kirby and Goldstein, as well as the advocates lobbying in the Legislature’s halls oh their behalf, are convinced that if legislation is not passed to change the PSRB, patients will continue to languish and receive unnecessary and costly care, their lives at a permanent standstill. And the effects of institutionalization will be long-lasting, well past when they are released. “They are kept out of their community,” Joondeph says. “This leads to hopelessness, and a level of despair that these folks are doing everything they’re supposed to do, and it never leads anywhere.” I N T E R N A T I Q N A L® Thank you! I feel so bad, for the girl who jumped For she won’t feel what today felt like Whether it is rain or shine She won’t hear her favorite song, or Get a phone call. Maybe she had a favorite color, we’ll never know. For the girl who jumped Why, who knows? A deep mystery The girl who jumped floating with her soul Peace was not freely given. For the girl who jumped I cannot forget your creamy flesh I won’t forget the confusion that suffocated us. Your lingering presence haunts me Yoh are a story that’s talked about A reminder of life, precious Easily diminished in an instant, For the girl who jumped. I know God is with you. K coffee bean We tip o u r m ugs to Coffee Bean International fo r donating coffee to Street Roots a n d keeping our vendors warm in the morning! For the girl who jumped By Heather H. The Orange Coat By Mary Lou McAuley Wearing an orange coat with her dancer’s stride she blows down the sidewalk like every young wing red hair sparking the candle of her sKm body. Forty years ahead, she waits, stands, in a pale down jacket, knit hat pulled low, brown slacks high at the ankle. Two loaded plastic sacks bear down on curved fingers but pinch no ring; She waits with her burden for the light to change orange to white she crosses. Consider a one-time or recurring donation to Street Roots by sending a check to 211 NW Davis St., Portland, OR, 97209, or online at www.streetroots.org.
