Randy Lauer, General Manager of American Medical Response

An ambulance company general manager took the stand Friday defending his company in a $5 million lawsuit.

WATCH – KATU.com video by Anna Song

Randy Lauer of American Medical Response of Oregon said he takes complaints about his paramedics seriously. But Royshekka Herring, who is suing the company, said she believes she would not have been molested by paramedic Lannie Haszard had AMR done more to prevent it.

Herring and three other female patients were sexually abused by Haszard in the back of ambulances.

Lauer said that while his company took complaints very seriously, Haszard was very good at hiding his crimes.

“I feel terrible for what happened,” he said. “Such a convincing liar and that he did this to our patients. It’s disgusting.”

Herring’s attorney, Greg Kafoury, however, questioned whether the company was forthcoming with law enforcement about Haszard’s complaint history.

Herring took the stand within the last few moments of the trial day to give jurors basic information about herself Then court adjourned. She will resume her testimony next week.

Herring’s lawsuit is the first of five filed against AMR in connection with Haszard.

OUR COMMENT – American Medical Response is also a primary defendant in Chasse v Humphrey. Their employees, Tamara Hergert and Kevin Stucker, claimed in sworn testimony to have checked James Chasse for injuries after he was beaten by three police officers in September 2006. His autopsy the next day showed multiple contusions to his head and chest, broken ribs and a broken shoulder, a torn spleen. According to witnesses, as Hergert and Stucker checked Chasse, he cried out for mercy and for medication.

FamilyWize® partnership offers free prescription drug discount cards

Go to familywize.org and get a free prescription drug discount card that lets you save up to 30% or more on 8 out of 10 prescriptions that are not covered or not fully covered by insurance.

You can also contact the United Way Agency nearest you to find out where to get your card. In Portland that number is 503-228-9131.

Present your card and prescription to a participating pharmacy to obtain the discounted price. You always receive the lower of the discounted price or pharmacy’s retail price. Your card that you use can be used only by you and the family members living in your household and can’t be shared with friends. And there is no mail-order prescription service with this card. See their website for complete details.

Some participating pharmacies are Albertsons, Costco, Fred Meyer, K Mart Pharmacy, Rite Aid Pharmacy, Safeway Pharmacy, Shop ’N Save, Wal-Mart Pharmacy and Walgreens. See the FamilyWize website for a complete listing.

Use your card as often as you need. There is no income limit, age requirement, eligibility or registration required. This is not health insurance. Discounts are provided by and available only at participating pharmacies.

FamilyWize encourages you to “email your friends, family members, co-workers, and members of groups you know a link to this website, place a link to this site on your websites and web pages, and print cards for the people you know that do not have Internet access. And please click on the Volunteer Center to get cards and flyers to distribute in your area. Together, we can make a difference! THANK YOU!”

FamilyWize® partnership has the goal of reducing the cost of medicine for children, families and individuals by $100 million. The cards are distributed free of charge nationwide by participating United Ways, community and faith-based organizations, county agencies, doctors, businesses, some pharmacies, and individuals.

The discounts and savings are provided voluntarily by the more than 53,000 participating pharmacies that have agreed to accept this card.

From KATU.com, August 26 2009

More than eight million Americans with either bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia are fighting the stigma of mental illness by embracing their “madness”, not suppressing it.

Will Hall has schizophrenia, but he said years of medication only made his condition worse.

“All my life I’ve experienced really difficult extreme states, hearing voices, seeing visions,” he said. “I felt like my creative emotional self was blunted and shut down and it really didn’t help me with any of the anxiety or fear I was experiencing.”

Hall chose more holistic treatments such as yoga, vitamins and a new diet over pharmaceuticals.

This idea came from the Mad Pride movement, a new and growing grassroots movement of people with serious mental disorders who are rejecting traditional psychiatric treatments and standing up against the shame associated with mental illness.

“I’ve learned to really accept this as part of who I am rather than seeing, like oh, being very terrified of it and saying I have to get rid of it or have to stop everything but accept it as part of a natural rhythm and cycle of my life,” said Hall.

Dr. Krista Tricarico, a local naturopathic physician, said homeopathic remedies can be equally effective without the side effects.

“People want other avenues to explore their health and are tired of listening to an authority tell them they just need medication,” said Tricarico. “It’s a lot more about a person finding their route to recovering and healing.”

But psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Dodson is worried about people rejecting years of scientific research and proof because he said they may feel ashamed.

“They take the medications because they have issues and the medication is designed to help them and some people think if they can just get rid of the medicine they won’t have their problem,” said Dodson. “It seems very irresponsible and dangerous.”

Hall emphasized that Mad Pride is not anti-medication and that patients should not stop taking their medication without talking to their doctors.

He said his process was slow and took him several years but he believes people should know there are other options.

Also, Hall launched Portland Hearing Voices, which is one of the first groups in the country where people can embrace their mental diversity.

For more information, you can also visit Mental Health Portland.

Fans of the Mental Health Association know we’ve been preoccupied for the past year or so making a documentary film about the life and death of James Chasse.

Be a fan and join us on Facebook.

The film, ALIEN BOY, is directed by Brian Lindstrom, creator of streetwise documentary films such as FINDING NORMAL and KICKING. Our board members and supporters have been working with Brian and a crew of both producers and technical crew on over full ten days of shooting over the past year.

Today, actually tomorrow, we wind a big portion of the production up with our final formal on-camera interviews.

Since January Brian has prepped and interviewed, by our best count, over 65 different people, including attorneys, politicians, cops, witnesses, experts, friends, and comrades, all seeking the basic question of who was James Chasse and what happened to him?

If you’re in the dark at this point, click here to find out for yourself what happened to James Chasse.

These interviews are a costly – both in time and money – portion of our production schedule. Now they’re finished, Brian’s work shifts to editing. We expect to have a rough cut done in a couple of months.

Over $35,000 in cash has been raised to make ALIEN BOY from over 200 people, matched by over $100,000 in given and pledged in-kind donations. We can say with great pride that exactly 100% of the fundraising for ALIEN BOY has gone to the production of the film – a big fat zero in administrative costs. Unheard of.

More bookkeeping – about those 200 persons who made cash and in-kind gifts. Many – most – are not friends or philanthropists, or persons who had made prior gifts to the MHAP (zero maintains as the easiest number to factor). Our 200 donors come from all walks of life; a risk-taking foundation, a best-selling author, a psychotherapist, a teacher, a bureaucrat, an architect, a psychiatrist, an inventor, an investor, business-owners and homeless people. Each one was struck by the what happened to James, and the opportunity ALIEN BOY makes to tell that story to more people.

Most serious documentaries don’t get further than dreams without securing financing between $500,000 and $5,000,000 from film financiers expecting profits. They’re a long-shot, but an investment. We have no financing – and carry forward no debts. One hundred percent of the profits from the film go to the further efforts of the Mental Health Association of Portland.

So thank you. A big goal has been reached for and achieved.

Thank you.

Published by the Lebanon Express, August 20 2009

Not all people who are homeless suffer from addiction or mental illness, but those who do have added complications in ending their homelessness.

Often, the addiction or mental health issues prevent them from holding a job or being a desirable tenant.

When the Linn County Steering Committee on Homelessness worked on its 10-year plan, it identified a need for a detoxification facility in Linn County, or at least, in the Linn-Benton-Lincoln region.

“We don’t have any in the LBL region,” said Joann Zimmer, a member of the steering committee. “We have a lot of folks that could definitely use medical detox facilities.”

A group of alcohol and drug professionals in Benton County have started working toward setting up such a facility, she said.

“All three counties view it as an important part of the plan,” she said. “We just have to figure out the logistics of it.”

The entire state — and nation — has limited medical detox facilities, said Frank Moore, mental health director and public health administrator for Linn County Department of Health Services.

The addict lifestyle

To ensure that the person needing help really wants it, all detox centers require the person in need of help to make the call themselves.

Some homeless people do not want help with addiction.

“A lot of them that I’ve spoken to personally, a lot of them have drug and alcohol issues,” Lebanon Police Chief Mike Healy said. “A lot of it is personal choice.”

Many shelters require sobriety, either in an attempt to change lifestyles or because the facility houses families with children.

Christwalk, a Lebanon organization to help people get back on their feet, has two transitional homes in town. Both are drug- and alcohol-free environments.

“Once they start drinking again, they have to leave,” women’s program director Annie Daniels said. “I give them 30 days. If they can clean up, they can come back.”

One difference between Christwalk homes and a traditional shelter is the drug- and alcohol-free requirement.

“We help them get off this trash, whatever is keeping them from being a helpful citizen,” said Randy Tunnissen, men’s program director. “A shelter, they’ll feed you, house you, but what has the person gained, what has the community gained.”

Drug and vagrancy issues affect the community, Tunnissen said, and “it’s going to take the community to deal with it.”

“They’d be a detriment to society and now they’re giving back, paying taxes, volunteering,” he continued. “This is good work; these are not the scum of the earth. They’ve made mistakes, but we’ve all made mistakes.”

Help at low cost

Teen Challenge offers a 12-month inpatient detoxification program in Shedd.

Teen Challenge is not just for teens, and helps both men and women.

Whatever a person cannot afford to pay for treatment at Teen Challenge is raised from other sources, said Teen Challenge manager John Jefferies.

“If they don’t have the money, they can stay,” Jefferies said. “We have to raise the funds for them through donations and work projects.”

After the 12-month detox, Teen Challenge offers more life assistance through their college program.

“The first year is called life skills training, because a lot of our students have not lived successfully clean and sober,” Jefferies said. “So they’re learning how to budget money and how to live.”

Many of the students at Teen Challenge have been homeless, Jefferies said, and would be homeless if they didn’t live there.

Jefferies said Teen Challenge is looking at starting a six-month outpatient service.

“That way if they have a family and job, and are trying to maintain in the community, then we want to provide that,” he said.

The program would be a non-medical, non-therapeutic model, to which addicts could come in the evenings for help.

“Some people are functioning addicts,” he said. “They are maintaining some presence in the community, but the drugs and alcohol are getting in the way.”

The center’s outpatient program is not ready yet, but Jefferies said “we’re training our facilitators” to make it happen.

Outpatient services

Other local facilities offer treatment at different levels of cost and intensity.

Emergence in Albany offers outpatient and intensive outpatient programs.

Outpatient programs typically include individual or group counseling, with clients engaging in therapy sessions once or twice a week, according to Suzanne Zerger, “Substance Abuse Treatment: What Works for Homeless People?”

Intensive outpatient programs fall between outpatient and inpatient programs, according to Zerger.

Emergence staff will put people on wait lists to residential care centers when needed.

Emergence is a private nonprofit organization that accepts health insurance, including the Oregon Health Plan.

“Thank god for the Oregon Health Plan, otherwise they (people battling addiction) wouldn’t get treatment,” said Program Director David Hickerson. “Oregon Health Plan is one of the few services that will pay for treatment.”

He said there is a significant substance abuse problem in Lebanon and has been for years.

“Addiction hits every level of society,” Hickerson said.

He added the economy has impacted substance abuse.

“When you’re unemployed and stressed about finances, you’re going to drink or use to cope, if that’s the way you normally cope with that stuff,” Hickerson said.

However, he does not see many homeless come to the treatment center.

“Homeless people don’t have resources,” Hickerson said. “They don’t get access to treatment. It’s difficult for them to access treatment.”

State funding for serving homeless people with addiction has been cut, Hickerson said.

“There’s plenty of homeless, and plenty that are addicted to substances, and plenty that have mental health problems,” but, Hickerson said, not enough resources.

Moore said many homeless would be eligible for the Oregon Health Plan, but because of their transient nature, it is difficult to get them to stay in one place long enough to compile the necessary paperwork, including Social Security number, ID and birth certificate.

Inpatient treatment

Serenity Lane in Eugene provides medical detoxification and rehabilitation, but it does not come cheap.

“If you don’t have any money or a job, it’s not likely you can find a way to our doors, unless you have a sponsor or some family member who can pay for your treatment,” said Mary Daniels, marketing director at Serenity Lane.

Serenity Lane is not a government-supported program. Health insurance is accepted for treatment.

New Hope, a new program offered through Serenity Lane, accepts the Oregon Health Plan, which will pay for two or three days of detoxification, “until you are clear of whatever chemical you are in there for,” followed by a 10-week intensive outpatient program, Daniels said.

OUR COMMENT – Teen Challenge is a religious program. Their form of treatment for addiction, which is a medical disorder, comprises largely of bible study. There’s no evidence this procedure is effective. Forgoing evidence-based treatment for bible-study is a national problem with rural addiction and mental healthcare and presents a significant diversion and barrier to those prospective patients.

From Willamette Week, August 20 2009

Approaching the three-year mark since the death of James Chasse Jr. in police custody, the Mental Health Association of Portland has launched an online petition demanding the city release records and a finding of facts in the case.

The petition is addressed to Mayor Sam Adams, Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Police Chief Rosie Sizer. It begins:

We, the signers of this petition, are persons in recovery from mental illness and addiction, their friends and family members, their neighbors, co-workers and colleagues, and members of the public.

Together we are alarmed by the lengthy and unwarranted delay in creating and distributing the internal police investigation, a public finding of facts, from a police action over three years ago which resulted in the death of an innocent man at the hands of city employees.

We believe delaying the release of this investigation jeopardizes public safety.

The city is currently being sued by the Chasse family in federal court.

The delay in releasing a finding on the officers’ behavior has also come in for criticism by Sgt. Scott Westerman, head of the police union.

After repeated public statements by Westerman, Sizer told WW seven months ago the case “is going through the process, and I don’t think it will take too much longer.”

Sizer and Saltzman have not yet returned calls seeking comment.

READ & SIGN – The James Chasse Petition

subCITY Premiere! August 27th, 2009 at the Hollywood Theater, Portland, OR
Also showing August 29th/30th at the Lake Twin Cinema, Lake Oswego, OR

Mental illness affects about a third of our population. That means the other two-thirds know someone who is afflicted. There are many stigmas and stereotypes associated with mental illness. But after watching this film, your ideas may be changed forever. This film explores the thoughts and stories of industry leaders, politicians, mental health experts, law enforcement, and of course consumers of mental health care. As their stories weave together, it tells a tale about mental health that may shock… may enlighten.. may inspire you to change the way the system works.

“subCITY” takes a look inside the subsidized world of mental health care. While it is an issue that affects people on a worldwide scale, “subCITY” focuses in on the state of Oregon as a case study, and sees how time and again, people’s lives are affected by the changes that have taken place within the system. Witness the final moments inside the Oregon State Hospital before it’s infamous “J” building was dismantled. Hear the stories from consumers of mental health, in what is certainly a moving and emotional journey for many. Their heart-wrenching but motivating stories are told in a compelling way that shatters many of the stereotypes associated with mental illness.

subCITY: Out of Sight. Out of Mind.
Running Time – 43:15
Mastered in High Definition

Dawn D’Haeze – Concept, Producer, Interviewer, Researcher
Kevin D’Haeze – Director, Photographer, Editor, Script, Visual Effects
Eric Stolberg, Digital One – Mixing and Narration Recording
October Moore – Narrator

Sharon Gary-Smith of Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare is hosting the Premiere, and Consumers who appear in this documentary will also be attending. Please RSVP to Sharon at (503) 238-0769 x179 if you plan on attending. Without an RSVP, general seating will be very limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Published by the Oregonian, August 19 2009

A petition began circulating on the Internet today, pushing for the release of the Portland Police Bureau’s internal investigation and the chief’s ruling on potential discipline following the September 2006 death of James P. Chasse Jr. in police custody.

“Read and sign our online petition to Sam Adams, Dan Saltzman and Rosie Sizer asking to release the James Chasse police investigation before the third anniversary of James’ death,” wrote Jason Renaud, a volunteer with the Mental Health Association of Portland, on his Facebook page.

Chasse, 42, who suffered from schizophrenia, died in police custody Sept. 17, 2006. Two Portland officers, Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice, and then-Multnomah County sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton struggled to arrest Chasse after one of the officers said he appeared to be urinating in the street. Police said he ran when they approached. They chased him, knocked him to the ground and struggled to handcuff him.

Ambulance paramedics called to the scene did not transport Chasse to a hospital, saying his vital signs were normal. But jail staff refused to book him because of his physical condition. He died in police custody on the way to a hospital from broad-based blunt-force trauma to the chest.

A federal lawsuit is pending against the city and American Medical Response paramedics, accusing Portland officers of excessive force, denial of medical attention and discriminating against Chasse because of his mental illness. A trial has been set for March 16. In July, Multnomah County settled its part of the lawsuit, paying out $925,000 to the Chasse family.

The petition signers http://www.petitiononline.com/Chasse/petition.html say they’re “alarmed by the lengthy and unwarranted delay in creating and distributing the internal police investigation, a public finding of facts, from a police action over three years ago which resulted in the death of an innocent man at the hands of city employees.”

The petition urges the city to complete the internal findings, and release them, along with its internal investigative report. It also urges the city to suspend from duty the officers who were involved in the case, pending the release of the internal investigation.

Detective Mary Wheat, spokeswoman for the Portland Police Bureau, said this afternoon she had no new information on the internal inquiry, and that the chief had not made a ruling on it yet.

Police union president, Sgt. Scott Westerman, said he’s disappointed as well that the chief’s findings haven’t been made public, and called it “sad” that the internal review remains unresolved nearly three years after Chasse’s death.

In depositions in preparation for the federal trial, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Chasse said he suffered 46 separate abrasions or contusions on his body, including six to the head and 19 strikes to the torso. Fractures to his back ribs also probably did not result from Chasse getting knocked to the ground or someone falling on top of him, but more likely resulted from a kick or knee-drop, state medical examiner Dr. Karen Gunson said. Had he received proper medical attention at the scene or been taken to a hospital right away, Gunson concluded, Chasse probably would still be alive.

EXTRA – Read and sign the James Chasse petition