NOVEMBER 5, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9
CHILDREN IN CRISIS:
Mental health, addiction care
falling short for distressed children
By LYNNE TERRY
Oregon Capital Chronicle
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fi rst of
a four-part series on the problems facing
children’s mental health care providers in
Oregon. Oregon Capitol Chronicle Deputy
Editor Lynne Terry interviewed more than
a dozen providers, parents and state offi -
cials and reviewed state records. For any-
one needing immediate help, call the Lines
for Life for youth at 877-968-8491 or seek
help in a nearby emergency room.
Over the last four years, Angela
Weirich’s daughter cycled in and out of
emergency rooms, residential treatment,
and outpatient therapy.
The 16-year-old had treatment and
medication but still she acted out. She
attacked family members, ran away and
skipped school.
Last spring she tried repeatedly to end
her life.
Following specialized hospital treat-
ment, she was ready again for treatment in
a residential setting.
But none was available.
“That was the last straw,” Weirich told
the Capital Chronicle.
The family moved in June to
Pennsylvania where they have obtained
treatment for the teen that was lacking in
Oregon.
“Our daughter was going to die in
Oregon,” Weirich said.
Their situation is not unique.
Other families have moved out of state
to fi nd mental health services their chil-
dren couldn’t get in a timely fashion in
Oregon, providers say.
Mental Health America, a nonprofi t
advocacy organization that tracks mental
health services nationwide, has repeatedly
ranked Oregon in its annual reports as
having a high rate of youth mental illness
and low rates of access to care.
A year ago, a state audit slammed the
state’s behavioral health care system for
children, calling it fragmented and operat-
ing without accurate and comprehensive
data. The audit found that state agen-
cies were not monitoring public fund-
ing and that children were cared for by
“overworked direct care workers who are
leaving the mental health system in high
numbers.”
The situation was bad then, and now
it is even worse, providers said in recent
interviews.
“We’re in danger of collapse,” said
Chris Bouneff , executive director of the
Portland-based National Alliance on
Mental Illness Oregon, an education, sup-
port and advocacy group.
Providers in recent months have
repeatedly warned the state that the chil-
dren’s behavioral health care system
is imploding — saying they don’t have
enough money to maintain the needed
workforce to meet the demand. Children’s
mental health providers laid out their con-
cerns in a meeting last month with Gov.
Kate Brown.
She subsequently directed the Oregon
Health Authority and the state Human
Services Department to come up with a
plan to fi x the problems within two days.
They produced a document listing
actions already taken during the pan-
demic to bolster providers and then sug-
gested more improvements.
Offi cials with the health authority said
they were talking with the governor’s offi ce
and lawmakers about potential sources
of workforce funding. They’ve since ded-
icated $15 million in federal funds for
child care and bonuses to those working
in behavioral health residential facilities.
But the money is for those who treat either
adults or children: The state agency didn’t
allocate a set sum for children’s providers.
Other proposals will take time to enact,
said Charles Boyle, Brown’s deputy com-
munications director. He said the gover-
nor will take them up with the Legislature
this coming February.
“OHA and ODHS are poised to move
forward with short-term investments that
will incentivize workers to stay in these
critical care roles,” Boyle wrote in an email.
“We also recognize there is more to do.”
He stressed that Brown earlier this
year had obtained from the Legislature
a “groundbreaking” $350 million invest-
ment in behavioral health. But it takes time
to move money through the bureaucracy.
“There were some really wonderful
investments and attention paid to the
behavioral health sector by the state
Legislature this last session,” said Heather
Jeff eris, executive director of the Oregon
Council for Behavioral Health, which
represents mental health and addiction
treatment providers. “But the government
moves at a diff erent pace, and so it takes
time to implement any program in the
health care world.”
Providers and advocates say more
emergency funds are needed now to help
them hire staff to keep facilities open.
“If we don’t build a bridge to those
investments, there’s not going to be any-
thing to build out,” Bouneff said.
The system for caring for Oregon chil-
dren suff ering from behavioral issues has
been pounded by demand. The number in
need isn’t readily available from state offi -
cials, but there have been fewer services
available.
Worried about COVID-19, providers
postponed in-home services. Waits for
outpatient therapy grew and the number
of beds in intensive residential care cen-
ters shrank.
“Programs where children went to
stay for care started having COVID out-
breaks, and they started to have dramatic
challenges with staffi ng,” said Dr. Ajit
Jetmalani, director of child and adolescent
psychiatry education at Oregon Health &
Science University. “The staff would get
sick, and they’d have to shut down beds.
The program would then hemorrhage
funds because they only make money if
they have children in their program. This
happened across the board in terms of
intensive services for kids.”
With residential beds limited, demand
for outpatient services was higher than
ever, with waits stretching to months in
some cases. “The length of waits are just
enormous, and they’ve worsened dra-
matically since the pandemic started,”
Jetmalani said. “Hospitals oftentimes will
have 20 people on the waitlist” for a bed.
Outpatient care changed, too, as pro-
viders switched to televisits.
He said that change created even more
inequities in access to care. Low-income
households often lacked good broadband
service and technology to benefi t from
televisits. In crowded homes, children
didn’t have their own rooms or a quiet, pri-
vate corner for a therapy session.
“We saw a lot of despair,” Jetmalani
said.
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