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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2018)
News PSYCHOTIC, from page 4 Multnomah County, according to multiple providers interviewed for this story. Traditional hospitals often discharge patients who use meth as soon as they’re stabilized, sending them back out into the community only to return to an E.R. at a later date when they have another episode. Providers and people with mental health diagnoses told Street Roots that while mental health facilities point patients with dual diagnosis to drug treatm ent programs, alcohol and drug treatm ent facilities point them toward mental health treatm ent - both sides of the provider spectrum tell the patient they’re ill-equipped to treat them until the other issue is dealt with, leaving the patient without any treatm ent at all. This problem was also a key finding of an independent study of Multnomah County’s mental health care System released earlier this year. It revealed a mental health care network that’s tough to navigate and challenging to access for those who need it m ost County Commissioner Meieran, who initiated the study, said she knows this is an issue. “The issue is so profound,” Meieran said, “and it intersects with so many different areas of public safety and housing and workforce, and all of these different issues.”^ Now that the study has been completed, she said she’s trying to untangle funding sources and their requirements so she can determine if there are more effective ways to utilize mental health care dollars. She said the county is still in the “idea phase,” but in many ways'rsWs■'attempting I d re-imagine what a mental health care system that would serve the county’s most vulnerable would look like. It might be mental health counselors placed strategically at places in the community where people experiencing homelessness already congregate. It could be a center where people could hang out, paint, read and if they want, get a little mental health counseling. Angel Prater, executive director at peer- support provider Folk-Time, Inc., thinks investing in peer-run respites might be a solution for some folks dealing with dual diagnosis, rather than traditional psychiatric hospitals that have risk factors determining what policies and procedures are in place. “They’re done all over the world, but we don’t have any in Oregon,” she said. Everyone who works at these facilities has some level of lived experience, there are more negotiations than rules, and it’s a place where people can go “hit their re-set button” without losing their power, she said. A recovered methamphetamine user, Prater has experienced psychosis while using the drug, she said. She said that when a person is experiencing these delusions, she knows from her own experiences that being approached by someone who is willing to listen and validate their experience is more powerful than someone who is only interested in telling them what they need to do. Ultimately, Multnomah County is responsible for the solving the problem - mental health and addictions treatment services are in its portfolio, but it will likely need some help from the city to fully mitigate what’s become a humanitarian crisis. But as the county struggles with figuring out the right way to handle the problem, resources for new programs just aren’t there. The county has to make 3 percent budget cuts across all its departments in the upcoming budget cycle, Meieran said. In 2019, however, Multnomah County will be asking Oregon Legislature to increase Health Share’s reimbursements to service providers for drug and alcohoK treatmenfe While reimbursements to pay for mental health care are already low - Meieran’s study also found the mental health care workforce across the county is “overburdened and underpaid” - reimbursements for drug and alcohol disorder treatments are even lower. “By bringing those two on par, the hope and expectation would be maybe you can better integrate services to treat both of those conditions,” said Meieran. em ily@ streetroots.org T w itter @ greenwrites ARANO 'A$iAN PACING AMERICAN NETWORK OP OREGON Executive Director H e lp us rea lize o u r v is io n o f a ju s t a n d e q u ita b le w o r ld w h e re A sians and Pacific Isla n d e rs a re fu lly e n ga ge d in th e so cia l, e c o n o m ic , a n d p o litic a l issues t h a t a ffe c t us. A p p licatio n s re q u es ted by D e ce m b er 18, 2 0 1 8 w w w .a p a n o .o rg A V igil o f Remembrance and Solidarity On the Longest Night of the Year and the National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day J o in us as w e ... ♦ G ather to name and rem em ber the people w h o die d on Portland I s streets in the last year. ♦ Show support fo r the Foster Street Shelter and c o m m it to gy oiMMMriin Armed Forces and are experiencing or at risk of becoming homeless? co lla b o ra tive care o f o u r shared space. ♦ C a ll on o u r c iv ic leaders to end p u n itiv e sweeps and o ve r-p o licin g . When: December 21st 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Where: S t Mark’s Lutheran Church 5415 SB Powell Blvd. Portland,Or 97206 We will gather at St. Mark’s for 3/4 mile silent procession to the Foster Street Shelter, where we will hold the vigil. ♦ C o m m it as a co m m u n ity to ensuring equitable access to • bathroom s, • garbage services, • safe o ve rn ig h t cam p in g areas. Follow this link for updated information and details on options for those who are not comfortable walking. www.smpdx.org/vigiLhtml. 1 1 Transition Projects Please call 855.425.5544 or visit 650 NW Irving Street Our grow inglist o f sponsors: Southeast Organizing and die Southeast People o f Faith, Right to Survive, St. Mark*« Lutheran Church, and Operation Nightwateh. For more information contact Katy Rustvold (katywstvoidig;tw c com) or Bonnie Beadles- 3
