Street roots
13
_______ A JhlliLlb?
May 10, 2013
County chair: Community can’t afford cuts to crisis center
JEFF COGEN
Jeff Cogen is the
Chairman o f the
M ultnom ah County
Board o f Commissioners.
He has served on the
county board since 2006.
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
■ Recently, I hosted a screening in the
Multnomah County boardroom of
JL V “Alien Boy” — the powerful film about
the life and death of James Chasse Jr.
Watching that incredibly poignant film
was a tragic - and all-too-topical - reminder
of the potentially deadly conflict that can
arise when police encounter people
diagnosed with mental illness.
As chair of Multnomah County, I know
full well the importance of providing
Portland police officers with every possible
resource to ensure their encounters with
people diagnosed with mental illness are
safe for everybody and provide people the
help they need.
Fortunately, we already have a great
resource in our community to achieve those
goals of safety and getting people effective
treatment the Crisis Assessment
Treatment Center (CATC).
Unfortunately, it now faces a grave threat
to its existence in Mayor Charlie Hales’
recently announced budget proposal.
In our community and in our country, we
have shared too often the sting of regret
that follows tragedies that might have been
avoided.
Whether it’s a horrific national event like
Newtown or perhaps a personally painful
experience of a loved one diagnosed with a
mental illness, each of us searches in
retrospect to pinpoint the missed
opportunity that could have saved a life.
It is rare when we can anticipate those
moments and act upon them. But the CATC
- with the stabilizing services its staff
provides — allows us to do just that.
Opened less than two years ago, the
CATC in inner southeast Portland already
has established a track record of success to
reduce the chance for any repeat of the
Chasse tragedy.
The CATC provides up to 16 beds of 24/7
secure care for residents experiencing a
mental health crisis.
People needing the CATC are also
referred by community partners such as
Project Respond, involuntary commitment
teams and treatment courts.
About 40 percent of the people placed at
CATC are diverted from inpatient hospital
emergency rooms and psychiatric units.
Nearly 1,300 people have used this
essential community service, and I’m proud
that my proposed budget for the upcoming
2014 fiscal year again contains the county’s
$600,000-plus share of funding for the
CATC.
But despite the county making its funding
priorities based on commitments from our
community partners such as the City of
Portland, the mayor’s proposed budget
would kill the city’s matching share.
If the city breaks its promise to provide
its share of the funding, it’s the people
served by the CATC who will suffer.
Here’s what that suffering means in
human terms: We estimate about 200
people a year will end up not getting
admitted for the services they desperately
need.
The center would have to reduce its
available beds from 16 to 11, as well as limit
its homrs of admission, and restrict how
many people the staff could see each day.
The results? Those folks now treated at
the CATC would be shifted to already
overburdened hospital emergency rooms,
psychiatric units and jails. And the costs
would fall back on the already strained
general funds of the state and county for
indigent people and Medicaid.
I could never predict exactly how any of
those 200 people - and the many people
whose lives they touch - would suffer
without a safe bed at the CATC. I could only
hope they don’t suffer.
But I don’t want to just hope. I want to
act to make sure no family has to look back
and wonder if the CATC could have saved
their loved one.
As somebody who has been in a position
of cutting budgets my entire term as county
chair, I know the mayor faces a series of
tough budget decisions.
But Multnomah County has made difficult
budget cuts for more than a decade so the
county can prioritize scarce taxpayer dollars
on essential services like the CATC.
The county and city opened this center
less than two years ago after agreeing to
work together based on a recommendation
from a mayoral task force after the death of
Chasse, who had been diagnosed with
schizophrenia.
I am saddened by the new mayor’s
proposal to renege on that partnership.
But I am optimistic that the mental
health community and the homeless
community will lend their powerful voices to
show the mayor and the rest of the City
Council that it would be shortsighted not to
find the money to honor the city’s
commitment to help fund the CATC, and the
Police Bureau’s commitment to use the
CATC.
After all, the federal Department of
Justice’s 2012 investigation of the Portland
Police Bureau concluded, “PPB officers use
more force than necessary in effectuating
arrests for low level offenses involving
people who are or appear to be in mental
health crisis.”
And getting beyond the painfully human
costs of hamstringing the CATC, we know
siphoning money out of the mental health
safety net is shortsighted. Just look at the
record $2.3 million settlement proposal
coming before the mayor and the Portland
City Council over a man diagnosed with
bipolar disorder who was shot by a Portland
cop.
That settlement alone would cover almost
four years of the city’s promised
commitment to the CATC.
At a time when we face such deep
challenges to funding our mental health
safety net, we know hamstringing the CATC
cannot — and will not — be supported by our
community.
oumeus
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