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.
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