From KATU.com, August 28 2009

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

A woman tries to understand her brother’s need to hoard.

By Dmae Roberts, published in Oregon Humanities – Summer 2009

I just saw my little brother, Jack, digging through a Dumpster at our neighborhood grocery store, and I pretended I didn’t know him. He was in the dirty, torn clothes he likes to wear for what he calls “collecting.” Sometimes his flannel shirts and fleece jackets are hanging in shreds on his thin, middle-aged frame. I know he doesn’t eat well, even though I buy him food, and every time I see him, he looks thinner. Though he can afford a haircut, he lets his hair grow long and stringy; when he perspires, it clings to his face and the old, thick glasses he wears.

When I moved him from our mother’s home in Eugene, where he’d lived until her death three years ago, to a nice one-bedroom house around the corner from me in Portland, I naively thought that in new surroundings his behavior would change. I’ve begged, cajoled, and criticized. But he won’t stop. Jack doesn’t dig through Dumpsters for income: collecting is his joy, his passion in life, one I’ll never understand.

Back at home, sitting at my cluttered desk, I fight the urge to phone him and ask again why he won’t stop. I’ve done my research, read about disposophobia–the fear of getting rid of junk. I’ve rationalized that Jack isn’t as bad as the people you see on the news who hoard dozens of small animals in their homes; he’s just a pack rat with a strong compulsion. A year ago, I took him to counseling, but after eight weeks of sessions, the mental health expert concluded, much to my frustration, that Jack was too old to change his behavior and that I needed to stop getting upset about it. That made me angry–but I knew Jack wasn’t the only one in the family with a problem.

Read the rest of My Brother, the Keeper at Oregon Humanities

Dmae Roberts (www.dmaeroberts.com) is a Peabody award-winning writer and radio producer who is currently working on her memoir, Lady Buddha and the Temple of Ma. She lives in Portland with her husband, Richard, and their twin cats.

Portland Hearing Voices, a new education and support organization that is under the Mental Health Association of Portland fiscal umbrella, announces new support and education groups held regularly in downtown Portland. People who have mental health diagnoses are welcome, *please spread the word.*

*About Portland Hearing Voices*

Portland Hearing Voices is a new group to support and educate around mental diversity, hearing voices, seeing visions, and non-ordinary mind states. We welcome the range of human experiences and take a
non-judgmental approach. We offer educational events, discussion groups, trainings and more. Help us make the community more inclusive and supportive! More info at our website
http://www.portlandhearingvoices.net.

*Voices, Visions, and Different Realities Group*
led by Will Hall. Open to people who have these experiences.
6-730 pm Downtown Chapel 601 W Burnside St

Tuesday August 25th
Tuesday September 8th
Tuesday October 6th
Tuesday October 20th
Tuesday November 3rd
Tuesday November 17th

What is it like to live with voices, visions, and different realities?
What do these experiences mean to you? How can we learn to accept and
live with who we are? What are ways to cope with fear, trauma,
isolation, and overwhelming responses? Are there positive, creative,
and spiritual sides to what we go through? What is mental diversity
all about?

Will Hall was diagnosed with schizophrenia and is an internationally
recognized mental diversity educator, advocate, and counselor.
www.willhall.org

Open to people who hear voices, see visions, and have unusual beliefs,
including mental health diagnosis. Inclusive, non-judgmental,
pro-treatment choice and pro-diversity. Donation requested, no one
turned away for lack of funds.

For information contact
portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com
www.portlandhearingvoices.net
413.210.2803

Download the Voices, Visions, and Different Realities Group Flyer
here:
www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/VoicesVisionsDifferentRealitiesGroupFlyer07-09.pdf

*Holistic Mental Health Education Group*
led by naturopaths Dr. Krista Tricarico and Dr. Elissa Mendenhall.
Open to all.

6-730 pm Downtown Chapel 601 W Burnside St

Monday Sept 7th
Monday October 5th

Join Naturopathic Physicians Dr. Elissa Mendenhall and Dr. Krista
Tricarico, who will present on holistic mental health options and lead
a group discussion. Learn about everything from nutrition,
supplements, herbs, holistic treatments and more.

Download the Resource Guide here:
www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/ResourceGuideHolisticMentalHealthGroup-Mendenhall.doc

Open to all. Inclusive, non-judgmental, pro-treatment choice and
pro-diversity. Donation requested, no one turned away for lack of
funds. People who hear voices, have unusual beliefs, altered states of
consciousness or mental health diagnosis are especially invited.

For information contact
portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com
www.portlandhearingvoices.net
413.210.2803

Download the Holistic Mental Health Group Flyer here:
www.portlandhearingvoices.net/files/HolisticMentalHealthGroupFlyer07-09.pdf

To: Sam Adams, Mayor of Portland, Oregon, Dan Saltzman, Commissioner of the Portland Police Bureau, Rosie Sizer, Chief of the Portland Police Bureau

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.

SIGN THIS PETITION NOW

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.

Our collective reason for concern is based on facts.

James P Chasse, Jr. was a mild-mannered person who lived downtown alone and quietly. He had a family, friends, and a rich spiritual life. He also had schizophrenia.

On September 17, 2006, Portland police officers Christopher Humphreys and Kyle Nice, and Multnomah County Sheriff deputy Bret Burton, who is now a Portland police officer, savagely beat James Chasse on a downtown street corner in front of dozens of witnesses.

Thirty minutes later James died from blunt force trauma, still shackled and without comfort or medical treatment, in the back of a Portland police car.

The District Attorney refused to file charges against the three officers involved in October 2006. They remain on duty pending discipline based on the Portland Police Bureau internal investigation.

On January 30 2009, Chief of Police Rosie Sizer was quoted in Willamette Week stating the investigation, ‘is going through the process, and I do not think it will take too much longer.’

Impunity is an active danger both to police officers and the public. There is no tool you can provide to the police that exceeds trust and respect for officers, especially in a crisis. This shadow of doubt must be illuminated.

1. We urge the City to finish writing and publicly distribute the internal investigation of what happened to James P Chasse, Jr.

2. We urge the City immediately suspend from duty those city-employed persons involved in this incident pending the release of the investigation.

SIGN THIS PETITION NOW

This is the first in a series of articles / opinion columns from the Mental Health Association of Portland written for Street Roots Newspaper

On July 2 the Multnomah County Commission voted to fund and build a new facility to help persons who are acutely mentally ill.

In 2001, during a generational redesign of Multnomah County’s mental health system, a variety of providers, former patients, referring agencies, community members, and independent clinicians decided to close a simular facility – the Crisis Triage Center, or CTC.

The CTC was a 24 hour psychiatric clinic attached to Providence Hospital which planned to provide immediate treatment for anyone, and specialized in being a third choice for police, the first two being doing nothing and making an arrest.  The CTC started unpredictably and badly, with the tragic death of Emily Comeaux, a person with needs beyond the comprehension of the CTC staff.

Prospective patients, sick and in crisis, who were coached to seek services at the CTC, regularly waited hours before seeing a clinician. Sick children were kept in the same waiting room as adult patients.  Cost of care was high and rising.  Some patients and clinicians chronically overused the CTC, clogging the service for others.  Patients were put on psychiatric holds unnecessarily, given the wrong medicine, or complained their concerns were dismissed.

After some public debate, and critical events such as the death of Jose Meija Poot, Providence Hospital and Multnomah County, both pointing fingers at each other, quit the contract and closed the CTC.

A re-design was proposed.  The newly formed Cascadia would open five walk in clinics which would be open 24 hours, staffed with able bodied clinicians, and located in all five quadrants of the city. Anyone could walk in and get help in a few minutes. The costs would be lower because the clinics were uncoupled from a hospital.

The clinics opened with much media fanfare, but within a few weeks, bureaucrats were thinking of how to save money. If services could be reduced, costs could be cut. Cascadia closed one after another, leaving eventually only one, and not open twenty-four hours, and only available to certain sorts of people.

The closure of the CTC added a hard-to-measure burden on a variety of services and individuals which had no coordinated way of comparing experience and recognizing an additional set of responsibilities. We’d estimate the cost is of not having this service is in the tens of millions of dollars per year.

So we applaud that the county leadership recognizes this new facility is an important component of the continuum of county services.

NAMING THE FACILITY

The name and how this facility is referred to is extremely important. The facility should not be called or generally referred to as the “mental health crisis center” or any parallel term focusing attention on “illness” or “crisis” or “assessment” or “mental” or “psychiatric.”   Professionals might object – They’re not the ones coming for treatment.

We suggest the facility be named after someone in our community who is both deceased and would have made use of the facility.  Emily Comeaux would be an excellent choice.

PEERS ARE IMPORTANT

Peer outreach workers should staff the front door of the facility 24 / 7. Peers have an education and orientation to recovery which is impossible to generate in a professional – though some professionals are in recovery themselves and some are good at faking it.

There value is to act as a human segue, a intimate problem-solver, a minder, a role model, a constant conduit.  And for persons contemplating the difficult changes required to gain sanity and sobriety there is value in having a relationship with someone who is NOT a professional.

OVERSIGHT

Create an oversight committee for the new facility which reports to the county chair. This committee should made up entirely of persons who would be likely users of the facility.

UNDERSTANDING TRAUMA

Just about everything we presumed was true about mental illness in 1996, when Emily Comeaux suicided in the CTC waiting room, we now think is wrong. In 1996 we looked back at the prior decade with the same skepticism.

What’s been true forever is compassion is a good guide. What we have learned in the past decade is there are a large number of people who may or may not have mental illness, but who act like it largely because they have been traumatized somehow and that trauma has been ignored or diminished by their community.

This is from a note Emily Comeaux left for her daughter,

We suggest the entire staff of the agency which manages the facility, and those who sit on an oversight committee, or are staff of the county who provide fiscal or political oversight, receive training about trauma.

Members of the Oregon State Hospital Patient Remains Memorial Workgroup,

Below is some additional information related to the attached photos, which should hopefully help you give your input on a permanent location for the cremains and memorial.

If you are planning on joining us for the tour on Wednesday please make sure to wear CLOSED TOED SHOES.  If you are unable to attend the tour please be sure to get any feedback to us by Thursday August 20th.  Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions between now and then.

Again the location and time of the tour is:
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
3-5 pm
Brooks Conference Room – Bldg 29 Oregon State Hospital

Here is the message from Jodie on the replacement team:

We have located two opportunities for the placement of the cremains of former OSH patients.  With both options, it is suggested that an area of the museum (that will be located in the center of the Kirkbride U), be dedicated to a small memorial to those who passed at the hospital.  This memorial would include reference to where the cremains are kept along with information on how to seek additional information if one is searching for a family member.

The first possible site is located on the 2nd floor of the Kirkbride building in a room that was used as a chapel.  This room would be large enough to store the cremains but would leave little room for any kind of meditation.  Access to this room would be limited as it is within the secure perimeter of the hospital and an appointment would need to be made with administration to access the room.

The second option is to place the cremains in the relocated Building 60.  This building is being located in the garden area just south of the Kirkbride U and would give a tranquil setting for an outdoor memorial as well as potential ability to be closer to the actual columbarium.  This memorial could be accessed any time of day and would lend itself to telling the story of the cremains to more people.

Sasha Pollack
Policy Analyst
Senate President’s Office
503-986-1604

From the Associated Press, posted in the Los Angeles Times, August 15 2009


Faded numbers stamped into small cement blocks marked the graves of more than 3,200 mentally ill patients buried here at Western State Hospital between the 1870s and 1953. Over time, the stones themselves sank into the earth, leaving the dead in almost perfect obscurity.


But a nearly decade-long effort by volunteers — buoyed by national efforts to bring light to these forgotten cemeteries — has put names to some 660 people who went unclaimed by either family or friend after dying at the state’s largest mental hospital, about 40 miles south of Seattle.


The remaining numbered stones have been restored to the surface, cleaned and await their own personalized plaques. Another 59 markers will be added this fall.


“It’s righting a wrong,” said Laurel Lemke, chairwoman of Grave Concerns Association, the volunteer group working to give each person a named marker. “For me, a lot of it is reducing the stigma of mental illness.”


The hospital has always had a mapped list of the names of those who are buried in what once was the hospital farm, but the stigma of mental illness, and the state’s confidentiality laws, led to decades of numbered markers, Lemke said.


One of the newest markers identifies the grave of Sabra Garwood Langworthy, who entered the hospital in 1879.

Alexsandra Stewart, Langworthy’s great-great-granddaughter, was doing genealogy research when she found Langworthy in census records that placed her at the hospital.

Stewart felt sadness and anger when she learned her ancestor was buried in an anonymous grave, marked only by the number 1412.

“There are records of the family visiting her, but the last 10 or so years, either they don’t have records or people didn’t visit,” she said. “I was angry about that too.”

Stewart, a 72-year-old Portland, Ore., real estate broker, said she had remembered hearing stories about Langworthy being institutionalized, but she said no one really remembered details.

Langworthy died of pneumonia at the hospital in 1915 at age 79. Records Stewart acquired from the hospital show the brutal diagnosis of the day: Insane.

Stewart said that Langworthy was “lost in time to a mental disorder of some kind and also lost to her family.”

“The records I found and the placing of a named marker was in some small sense a way to recover her, bring her back to the family,” she said.

The project at Western State is part of a national movement to attach names to more than 100,000 such graves across the country, “symbolically giving voice and dignity to people who have been ostracized by their communities,” said David Shern, president and CEO of Alexandria, Va.-based Mental Health America, a national advocacy group.

Similar efforts have been undertaken in several states, including Massachusetts, Georgia, New York and California. A new national memorial dedicated to the unnamed graves of the mentally ill broke ground at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. in June.

Western’s cemetery is within what is now Fort Steilacoom Park, across the street from the hospital, once the site of Fort Steilacoom. The named plaques are scattered through the cemetery, surrounded by a dog park, playgrounds and trails.

The oldest remaining building on the hospital campus is the 1934 administrative building, which replaced the first brick-and-mortar building that was built in 1887. The original asylum was established in 1871 in officer housing and military barracks at the fort.

Through the years, Western’s cemetery was overgrown and the stones sank.

“It just seemed abandoned,” said Lemke, who said that her own battles with bipolar disorder made her want to restore the cemetery. “I felt kind of a kinship for people who didn’t have the same opportunities I had.”

Starting in 2000, Lemke and other volunteers, including patients at the hospital, began to raise and clean the numbered markers.

A large monument at the cemetery’s entrance was put up in 2003 in honor of all of those buried there, but because the state’s confidentiality laws still prevailed, Lemke’s group wasn’t able to disclose names. After lobbying the Legislature, her group was successful in getting the law changed in 2004. The first individual marker was placed later that year.

More than 530 names belonging to those who died and who were cremated between 1939 and 1952 are engraved on a large marker bearing the legend, “Rest in Peace.” An additional 127 people have individual markers on their graves.

On a recent summer day, tall, prairie-dry grass filled the cemetery, but the markers — both the numbered and the named — are clearly visible.

The granite marker of Robert Beatty, who died in 1888, is next to stone number 124, which has faded so much that the number is barely legible.

“I don’t know what their mental illness was, I don’t know if they were born in another country, I don’t know if they were a farmer,” said Lemke, who said she doesn’t have access to any of the personal medical records of the patients.

Family members who have a relative buried at the cemetery and want to find out additional details can request the records from the hospital.

Some of those buried here have historical significance, including John Moore, one of the first homesteaders in Des Moines who died in 1899, and Charles Victor ‘Victory’ Faust, who pitched two games for the then-New York Giants, and died at the hospital in 1915.

Of the additional markers planned for the fall, Lemke is planning a special ceremony for one of them — a Civil War veteran, Charles Cooley, who up until now has only been marked by the number 200.

Lemke said her group’s goal is to complete replacing all of the markers in the next 10 years, and she hopes that each unveiled name will bring honor to the memory of the people who had such troubled lives.

“To me it’s a peaceful place,” Lemke said. “For myself, I don’t have a family cemetery to visit. Many people have cemeteries they tend to, so this is mine.”

EXTRA – Western Washington State Hospital
EXTRA – ‘Grave Concerns’ to identify and mark 50 more graves at historic Western State Hospital cemetery

From the Salem Statesman Journal, August 13 2009

A Salem cemetery gatekeeper Wednesday disputed key events described in a wrongful termination lawsuit brought against the state by a fired Oregon State Hospital security employee.
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Joe Salazar Jr., the gatekeeper at the Lee Mission Cemetery, challenged claims made in a $2.4 million lawsuit filed by ex-hospital worker William Coleman.

He disputed, in part, the lawsuit’s assertion that Coleman and a hospital security coworker, Gregory Charles, visited the cemetery Nov. 24 to patrol the area.

“Those guys never went in there to patrol that cemetery,” Salazar said. “They had no authority to do that. It’s a private cemetery.”

Salazar said he observed the men having oral sex in a state vehicle parked in a secluded back corner of the cemetery, west of the hospital campus along D Street NE.

In legal papers, Coleman and Charles have characterized the sex allegation as bogus. They claim hospital officials took steps to end their employment without specifying reasons. Both are pursuing legal action against the state, claiming they were fired because they are black. Coleman has filed a civil suit, accusing hospital officials of discrimination, defamation and wrongful termination. Charles has filed a tort claim notice with the state, signaling his intent to sue.

A Statesman Journal story published on Wednesday outlined Coleman’s lawsuit. It also reported that Coleman faces criminal charges that he sold tobacco and creatine, a muscle-building supplement, to prison inmates.

The Marion County criminal charges against Coleman allege that he sold smuggled contraband to inmates in exchange for cash.

Coleman worked as a corrections officer at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem from Jan. 18, 2005, until he resigned Sept. 18, 2007, according to state records.

The alleged contraband dealing occurred from October 2006 to May 2007.

Coleman began working at the state hospital in October.

In a Wednesday interview, Salazar scoffed at the notion of hospital employees patrolling the private cemetery.

“Never,” he said, adding that hospital employees occasionally drop by the cemetery.

Salazar said he has served as the volunteer gatekeeper at the cemetery for four or five years. He lives in a house facing the cemetery.
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“I see every car drive in and out,” he said.

On Nov. 24, Salazar said he became suspicious when he saw a vehicle pull into the cemetery and stop in a back corner of the graveyard.

He said he rode his bicycle close to the parked vehicle, which had state license plates. He said he witnessed two men having oral sex.

Salazar said he decided to circle the graveyard on his bike, hoping that the men would finish and leave.

After 10 or 15 minutes, Salazar said he returned to the vehicle and tapped on a window. A man sitting in the driver’s seat jumped out, he said.

Salazar said the man zipped up his pants and ordered him to leave.

“He said, ‘I’m a police officer, and we’re in the middle of an investigation, and if you don’t get the (expletive deleted) out of here you’re going to be part of it.’”

After a confrontation, Salazar said he returned home and padlocked the cemetery gate to prevent the vehicle from leaving.

He said he reported the incident to the chairman of the cemetery board and to Salem police. A short time later, police arrived and questioned Coleman and Charles. Police contacted hospital security leaders, who came to the cemetery.

Hospital officials took immediate action to end Coleman’s trial service employment. Charles was placed on leave and “duty stationed” at home until he was fired in March.