Street roots., April 22, 2016, Page 9, Image 9

Page 10
2 0 1 6 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS RACE
What is one thing you will do to better serve people
■ ■ experiencing mental health crises? (150 words or less)
Continued from Page 9
10
" ^ e county’s Racial and Ethnic
Disparities Report reveals that
black people are 320 percent more
likely than whites to be prosecuted for
a crime, 500 percent more likely to
spend time in jail, and 600 percent
more likely to be sentenced to prison.
What will you do to help correct that?
(150 words or less)
MARISHA CHILDS
My answer would be very similar to the
answer I provided in response to Questions 7 and
8. Better training of law enforcement officers, the
District Attorney’s office, mental health providers
and jail personnel would be a great sta rt
SHARON MEIERAN
As a member of the Community Oversight
Advisory Board that oversees the Department of
Justice Settlement Agreement regarding Portland
Police Bureau’s use of force against people in
mental health crisis, our discussion has
necessarily broadened to include addressing
issues of racial disparity. Our first step m ust be
to openly acknowledge the degree to which this
disparity exists in our county. Next, we need to
engage with people and groups directly affected
to identify the underlying issues and create a plan
and path forward.
MEL RADER
The recent Racial and Ethnic Diversity Report
showed that disparities deepen at each step of
the criminal justice system. It’s clear that we
need a suite of strategies to reduce this web of
disparities, and we need to affect both programs
and policies.
Key approaches must include:
• Training police, prosecutors, parole officers,
judges and other criminal justice system
personnel to reduce racial biases.
• Encouraging prosecutors to prioritize
violent crimes.
• Seeking options to divert nonviolent
offenders and people with mental health histories
into programs that address their needs.
• Limiting pretrial detention to those who are
a threat to public safety.
We must also collaborate with a broad range of
community groups to ensure transparency and
accountability. Local organizations are aware of
how systemic barriers affect communities, and
it’s critical that those advocates keep the county
on track for measurable changes.
BRIAN WILSON
I’ve always been a believer in schools, not jails.
By taking a broad approach, enlisting the help of
partners in the black community, recruiting/
retaining more district attorneys, law
enforcement officers, teachers, etc., we can
address the situation with the sensitivity that
comes from shared experiences. Better
education. Better opportunities.
ERIC ZIMMERMAN
We need to build better relations between law
enforcement and our African-American
communities. Everyone should have a shared
interest in ensuring fair and just treatm ent of all
our residents, regardless of race, as well as
effective community policing that can reduce
crime and strengthen neighborhoods. I have
strong relationships in both the African-American
community and law enforcement And I think it
will take a leader that can credibly work with all
stakeholders if we are going to reduce racial
disparities in arrests and incarceration.
Street Roots • April 22-28, 2016
MARISHA CHILDS
We need to provide more supportive
living environments. The stigma attached
to mental illness needs to be removed,
and it needs to be considered on par with
physical illness such as cancer and heart
disease. Mental health issues need to be
addressed earlier; children need to have
services such as more social workers in
the school. I am looking for a paradigm
shift in the way mental health services are
delivered. It’s not always possible for
people with mental health crises to come
to a clinic; social workers and other care
providers need to be able to m eet the
people suffering mental health crises
where they are (tents, the library, the
trail, etc.). I also want to continue to work
on law enforcement training, so that those
first responders have at least some basic
skills on appropriately and effectively
interacting with people in the midst of a
mental health crisis. “Mental health”
should be an option when a person in
distress calls 911 for help.
SHARON MEIERAN
As an ER doctor, I see on a daily basis
how we fail people facing mental health
crises. We need better coordination of
care and services to keep people out of
crisis in the first place. However, despite
our best efforts, crises will occur. Taking
people to jail or boarding them in an ER is
unacceptable. 1 will ensure that peers and
people with lived experience inform every
aspect of how we approach issues of
mental health care. We are trying a new
model with the Unity Behavioral Health
Center. As an advisory board member, I
-in
1
am listening and aware of concerns
expressed. But I see the potential for a
paradigm shift in how we treat people with
mental health crisis if we do things rig h t I
will continue to engage people with lived
experience as this new project unfolds so
that we are truly meeting the needs of the
community.
MEL RADER
I will advocate to fund a system of peer-
support counselors. We need community
health workers and peer support
counselors working with diverse
communities to promote the social
support systems that are necessary to
promote mental well-being.
This will provide a first point of contact
that can monitor and support people at
risk or experiencing mental illness, and
they can help people navigate the health
care system when more acute care is
needed. But perhaps more critically,
community health workers can support a
management plan that prevents individuals
from having a crisis in the first place.
The Community Capacitation Center
can help with training and building
relationships with community
organizations to host and support this
workforce. We should also partner closely
with health systems to provide coordinated
approach to community health, and we
should support a continuum of care from
community and social supports all the way
to acute care in a crisis.
BRIAN WILSON
Hooray for Unify Center - but with no
net adds to the number of beds, we’re
going to have to provide an incentive for
Nicky Kriara, a local artist, gave this
painting to E ric Zimm erman. “This is my
favorite thing about M ultnom ah County
because I, like so many others, fo u n d my
best frien d at M ultnom ah County A n im al
Service as a rescue, second chance Pet,”
Zim m erm an said.
the CCOs to invest more. We also need to
build housing that will be supportive of
those exiting Unity or shelters, so we’re
not pushing them back into the
environment that likely triggers their
illness to begin with. We’ve also got to
start following best practices from other
communities who make effective use of
robust information systems to track and
immediately notify all service providers of
a consumer’s status.
ERIC ZIMMERMAN
Increasing the capacity of the Unify
Behavioral Health Center is critical.
Investing in peer care and mentoring is an
important ongoing step we m ust give to
clients experiencing crisis to reduce visits
to the ER. These are both programs I
want to champion at the county.
As the community faces a housing crisis and growing economic and racial disparities, services aren’t
going to cut it. Give an example of one thing you will do to prevent this opportunity gap from widening.
MARISHA CHILDS
I am not really sure that I understand
this question. “Services” is such a broad
topic; I don’t know if the question refers
to working with landowners to allow
homeless to use vacant spaces at least
temporarily. Part of this is working with
community partners (NAYA, Urban
League, Jade/APANO, PCRI, etc.) to come
up with creative solutions and
communities of support, even if this may
not technically be “services.”
SHARON MEIERAN
First and foremost, I will listen. I will
engage community leaders, private
business leaders, nonprofit and advocacy
groups, local elected officials and people
most affected by these issues. I take a
holistic approach to all the work that I do,
and this will be especially the case at the
county, where all the services provided
are so integrally related. I recognize that
people can’t take care of their mental or
physical illness or find or keep a job if
they don’t have a roof over their head.
Working in the ER, I see interconnections,
and where our failure to intervene at
multiple points, in different areas, leads to
people being seen in the most expensive
and least effective place to deal with their
underlying problems. People need
housing, and they need services, but
neither is sufficient without the other. I
will ensure that we focus not only on
single issues, but on the whole picture, so
that all people can live safely and with
dignity.
child care would better allow all parents to
provide for their families and therefore
minimize the opportunity gap that affects
families who couldn’t otherwise afford
qualify child care.
MEL RADER
Qualify preschool is one of the best
investments we can make in our children’s
future.
Multnomah County should commit to
the future of our children by establishing
affordable preschool and by expanding
employment-related day-care programs to
more families.
In addition to supporting parents in the
workforce, universal preschool has a
significant return on investment for our
economy. The earlier we invest in
children, the lower our future costs will be
for jails and prisons, health care and
behavioral health services. Rates of return
range per study up to $711 for every $1
invested, and the evidence is so strong
that we can’t afford to delay.
Expanding affordable child care is
integral for young working parents to
become more competitive in the
workforce, and this is especially true for
women of color; African-American women
earn 64 cents, and Latina women earn 56
cents for every dollar earned by a white
non-Hispanic man. Expanded affordable
BRIAN WILSON
There’s really only one answer to this:
more housing of all different levels of
affordability, near good schools and in
environmentally safe neighborhoods. We
need to make an investment in this,
building partnerships with organzations
like APANO and NAYA to m eet the
specific cultural needs of those
communities most impacted, and more.
ERIC ZIMMERMAN
We need a shared commitment by
government, advocates and business to
creating middle-wage jobs. There are tons
of opportunities in this community for
professionals and others with a particular
skill s e t But the growing disparity
between haves and have-nots is driven by
the loss of decent jobs that can support a
family that do not require an advanced
degree. Adding those jobs will take an
intentional commitment and hard work,
and we must commit to ensure good
wages and benefits in those jobs. But they
are the only way we are going to stop
those disparities from overwhelming us.