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| Oregon to re-examine mental-health system |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/05/2004 |
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With Oregon's prisons and jails swelling with the mentally ill, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has asked a task force to conduct the first broad examination of Oregon's mental-health system in at least a decade. "To use prisons as an alternative to providing mental-health services is totally unacceptable to this state, and should be to every citizen," Kulongoski said. The task force, which has 19 members, recently met for the first time. Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson, who sits on the panel as a representative of the Oregon Sheriffs Association, said he hopes it can do for mental health what 1993 legislation did for support of children and families. The 1993 law set up a network of county commissions to direct money into prevention programs aimed at youths who could fall into poverty and crime. "Right now, we don't serve those people properly," Anderson said of the mentally ill. Kulongoski said that spending money in a smarter way also is a goal for the task force, which will report its recommendations by January 2005. "This state has been struggling on how we provide and coordinate services for many years - and to be truthful, we have not gotten it right yet," he said. A task force that then-Gov. Neil Goldschmidt appointed in 1988 looked at inpatient psychiatric services. It continued a trend to move more mental-health clients out of hospitals. As a result of a lawsuit settlement, the state also expanded mental-health services for children in the early 1990s. In 1995, mental-health services were integrated into the Oregon Health Plan, which covers people under the federal poverty line. Services were cut for thousands of recipients earlier this year because of spending cuts. The 2003 Legislature restored the services, but the action awaits federal approval. The governor set up the task force at the request of Sens. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, and Margaret Carter, D-Portland. "I don't plan to leave state government without getting a mental-health plan in place," Carter said. |
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