From the Salem Statesman Journal, October 30, 2009

The board must address more issues than patient treatment, Courtney says

A new Oregon State Hospital advisory board needs to focus on fixing problems at the psychiatric facility instead of being cheerleaders for reforms already achieved, several panel members said Thursday.

“I don’t want this group to turn into a showcase for what you think you’re doing well,” Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis said during the panel’s inaugural meeting.

Bennington-Davis, the chief medical officer for Cascadia Behavioral Health care, urged state hospital officials to bring chronic problems and struggles to the advisory board, opening the door for possible solutions.

Another board member concurred.

“We don’t need to be your cheerleaders,” said Dr. Robin Henderson, the director of behavioral health services at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.

The 16-member citizen-led board was created by the 2009 Legislature to provide oversight of the state-run psychiatric facility. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a searing critique of patient care and hospital conditions in a January 2008 report, and the federal investigation remains unresolved.

The advisory panel is charged with conducting a comprehensive review of hospital rules, policies and procedures related to the safety, security and care of patients.

The board can make recommendations to Roy Orr, the hospital superintendent; Dr. Bruce Goldberg, the state human services director; and the legislative assembly.

On Thursday, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, a nonvoting member of the advisory board, raised concerns about the scope of the panel’s oversight.

Courtney said the legislative intent was to create a general-purpose advisory board.

In keeping with that, he said, the panel should examine many hospital-related issues, from parking and traffic concerns to possible changes in state laws.

Focusing only on patient treatment would be a mistake, he said.

No decisions were made during the opening session about board priorities or specific issues to tackle. The board initially plans to meet monthly.

At the start of the first meeting, Mike Adelman, one of two former hospital patients on the panel, spoke briefly about the Oct. 17 death of patient Moises Perez.

It’s important, he said, that the case not be swept under the carpet.

Perez, 42, was discovered dead in his bed on Ward 50F, a secure treatment ward in the hospital’s forensic program.

Other patients and mental-health advocates have alleged that staffers neglected Perez and that he was dead a long time before anybody noticed.

An autopsy concluded that Perez died from coronary artery disease.

Inquiries into his death are being made by the Oregon State Police and the State Office of Investigations and Training. Hospital officials have said that confidentiality laws, as well as ongoing investigations, prevent them from talking in detail about the case.

Adelman, who was released from the hospital in 2005, said he was troubled by the “suspicious circumstances” of Perez’ death and the lack of information released to the public about it.

“It may never be known to the public what the whole story is because of privacy laws,” he said.

Other than Adelman’s remarks, the advisory board did not discuss the case.

OUR COMMENT – The new Oregon State Hospital advisory board is charged with reviewing the safety, security and care of patients and may delve into other hospital-related issues. The panel can make recommendations directly to the hospital superintendent, the state human services director and the Oregon Legislature.

The advisory board was created by legislative action in June and finally met for the first time on October 29, 2009. No roster of members, no leadership, no agenda and no information about the time or place of the meeting were widely distributed or are on the OSH web site.

As for Peter Courtney’s comment, the voting members of the advisory board should do what they like within the legislative mandate.

READ – Oregon State Hospital employee newsletter, Recovery Times, October 2009

MORE – Oregon State Hospital Advisory Board members include the following:
• Mike Adelman, Salem, former state hospital patient
• Beckie Child, Portland, mental health advocate and president of Mental Health America of Oregon;
• Nona Clarke, Hillsboro, former state hospital patient
• Dr. Robin Henderson, Bend, director of behavioral health services at St. Charles Medical Center
• Corbett Monica, Sandy, executive director of Dual Diagnosis Anonymous of Oregon, a peer support program for persons recovering from mental illness and substance abuse
• Herbert Ozer, Portland, administrator of behavioral health services at Providence Health and Services
• Janet Spinosa, Salem, mother of a state hospital patient
• Deborah Weston, Portland, staff attorney for the Oregon Law Center

Non-voting members include:
• Sen. Peter Courtney
• Brant Johnson, Salem, state hospital mental health therapist
• Dr. Lorraine Skach, Keizer, state hospital psychiatrist
• Frank Warner Jr., Keizer, state hospital nurse
• Rep. Carolyn Tomei

From Jack Bog’s Blog, October 28, 2009

Portland City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade has just posted a request for outside firms to bid on the contract to take yet another look at the police bureau’s conduct in the infamous James Chasse killing. The document calls for a preliminary report in April, and a final report in June. By then, of course, a jury may have issued its own findings — and the city will likely be paying many millions to Chasse’s family.

Read more: http://bojack.org/#ixzz0VIFZMSPq

READ – Request for Proposals, Independent Police Case Review Service, Portland City Auditor

From the Portland Mercury, October 28, 2009

Dragging it Out of Him : City Forces Saltzman to Publish Cops’ Secret List

A majority of City Council finally forced Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman to publish a secret list of frequent arrestees last week.

The list names those arrested most frequently in Old Town, inner Southeast Portland, and parts of North/Northeast Portland, and is a replacement for the city’s controversial “drug-free zones” program, which was disbanded in late 2007 following race disparity concerns.

A month ago, Saltzman said he had decided to keep the list secret, to protect the identity of people on it—many of whom are offered drug treatment. However, these same people are being charged with a felony for what would normally be treated as misdemeanor drug possession. Randy Leonard appeared to back down from the argument, saying he disagreed, but respected Saltzman’s authority as police commissioner. But last week, Leonard came back for more.

Initially, Mayor Sam Adams suggested releasing only the demographic information of people on the list, after criticism from Copwatch activist Dan Handelman, but Leonard interrupted to disagree. “There’s no legal justification for keeping the names secret,” he said, accusing Saltzman of “not serving the best interest of the program, or even the people in the program.”

“It’s time to end this charade of allowing those who would attack this program for various reasons to hang their hat on the list,” Leonard continued.

Saltzman said, “Certain elements of the press are just clamoring to get the names in print,” referring first to “the Mercury and Willamette Week,” and later, specifically, to the Mercury, which first discovered the list’s existence in April 2008, and has been a continuing advocate for its publication.

“You can dress up the issue anyway you like,” said Saltzman. “But these are people, they are individuals, they are job applicants, and I don’t necessarily think they want to pick up the Mercury and see their names in the paper.”

Leonard then brought his daughter into the argument. He again accused Saltzman’s police bureau of leaking details about his daughter to the press—apparently referencing a Willamette Week story from last October, describing her entry into drug treatment as an “open secret” at city hall. Leonard directed a long stare in Saltzman’s direction as he made those remarks.

Then, Leonard said, “You get to the point—when you have a child and they become an item for the police department—the least of your worries is [that] somehow the Mercury or the Willamette Week publishes their names. You’re worried if you’re going to get a call from the coroner.”

The vote came as an amendment on the payment of $1.2 million more into the program, to fund ongoing drug treatment and rehabilitation for 53 people. City Commissioner Nick Fish supported the payment, but pointed out: “For an equivalent investment we can tackle about 40 percent of the homeless problem on the streets of Portland.”

“We’re talking about a substantial investment of public resources,” Fish continued.

OUR COMMENT – This inane debate is of interest to the Mental Health Association of Portland only because we acquired a copy of the “secret list” today. It holds the names and birthdates of several hundred accused streetcorner drug dealers and addicts.

Instead of sending these folks through drug court, as is done in hundreds of communities nationwide, and instead of funding voluntary addiction treatment, our police have created a secondary system, purchasing one template of services for all persons, then essentially blackmailing individuals into compliance.

However, we hear there have been successes, and appreciate the creativity of the police response to the idiotic short-sightedness of the state legislature, and until the past year, Multnomah County.

So we want some data: Who has received treatment (no names, please)? What sort of treatment have they received? What is the outcome of the program? What happens when people fail the program? What happens when they succeed?

All of this has been hidden by Dan Saltzman, thinking the papers would publish the list of names. So far they haven’t.

From the Willamette Week, October 18, 2009

A federal judge warned in court today he may move the civil trial over the death of James Chasse Jr. out of Portland because heavy media coverage may have poisoned the pool of jurors.

“We’re going to have a heck of a time finding a jury in this case that has not read information or come to some opinion based on information that may or may not be relevant,” said U.S. District Court Judge Garr King. “Every time I see an article about this case, it adds to the possibility that we will have to move.”

King denied a motion by Tom Steenson, the attorney for Chasse’s family, that would have forced the city to turn over records of the cops’ internal investigation into Chasse’s 2006 death in police custody. King said he feared making the documents public would lead to more news stories.

“As you know, I’m very concerned about trying this case in the newspapers at this time,” King said.

Steenson claimed he needs the documents in order to counter statements the city made when Police Chief Rosie Sizer announced last month that the officers’ use of force on Chasse did not violate police policy.

Steenson claimed the city’s statements violated a protective order preventing release of information. That order was granted by U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Hubel at the city’s request.

“The city thinks it’s OK to violate Judge Hubel’s order and release cherry-picked pieces of information,” Steenson said. “Why do they get a one-way street, when the internal record tells a very different story than the information they’re releasing?”

King noted that Steenson had not asked for sanctions against the city for allegedly violating the protective order. He was simply denying Steenson’s request to release the Internal Affairs records.

King said the case is “well on the road” to a change in venue, adding that he understands the city will make a request to change location of the trial. Deputy City Attorney Jim Rice agreed, saying the city is looking into that possibility.

As for City Commissioner Randy Leonard’s public statement last week that Chasse’s death was “completely unjustifiable and inexcusable,” King asked Rice what effect such comments from an elected official may have on the city’s case.

Rice didn’t directly answer King’s question.

“I have always urged everyone not to make public comments in this case,” Rice said. “I have urged them to try this case in court.”

From the Willamette Week, October 28, 2009

City Commissioner Randy Leonard will make a star witness if the lawsuit over the 2006 death of James Chasse Jr. in police custody goes to trial this March as scheduled.

But he probably won’t be testifying for the city in its defense against the lawsuit filed by Chasse’s family. Not after Leonard made remarks at a City Council meeting last week—captured on video—that Chasse’s death from massive blunt force trauma was “completely unjustifiable and inexcusable.”

Leonard’s statement Oct. 21 was remarkable coming from a high-ranking city official in a case that has inflamed public opinion and widened rifts between cops and the community.

And it went against what city commissioners have said was the advice of the City Attorney’s Office, perhaps weakening the city’s position in avoiding a potentially staggering payout to the Chasse family in its lawsuit seeking unspecified damages. Multnomah County settled its smaller piece of the suit last July for $925,000.

The Chasse family’s attorney, Tom Steenson, declined to comment on Leonard’s remarks. But other prominent cop-suing lawyers in town who are not involved with the case say they wouldn’t hesitate to employ Leonard’s remarks against the city in court.

“I would absolutely use it every way I possibly could,” says lawyer Steven Sherlag. “Kudos to Randy Leonard for speaking the truth.”

“I would show the video in [my] opening statement,” says lawyer Greg Kafoury. “I would thank Mr. Leonard for his honesty and his courage in not hiding behind attorneys or bureaucrats and for not knuckling under to the power of the police union.”

Leonard says he isn’t worried about hurting the city’s case.

“I’m elected by the citizens of Portland to do the right thing, not try to win court cases in incidents involving the death of Portland citizens,” Leonard says. “My first obligation above all is to represent the citizens of Portland, and underneath that umbrella includes financially protecting them but also protecting their civil rights and making sure they are safe.”

Leonard’s remarks came after a series of public disputes with Commissioner Dan Saltzman, assigned by Mayor Sam Adams to oversee the Police Bureau. Most recently, Saltzman spoke up against Leonard’s effort to arm Water Bureau security with guns and provide them with police training. On Tuesday, Saltzman proposed giving those guards less-lethal options like pepper spray or Tasers.

Leonard denies his remarks on Chasse were meant to pressure Saltzman politically. Instead, he says a number of factors prompted him to speak out more than three years after Chasse’s death.

First was Police Chief Rosie Sizer’s announcement in September that the officers’ use of force in arresting Chasse was justified under police policy. Leonard says he held off speaking publicly until after the findings were complete.

Leonard says with the Chasse case, the Police Bureau “continues an almost insane set of circumstances wherein it makes it inevitable Portlanders are going to be seriously hurt or killed.” Sizer’s office declined to comment.

Then came what Leonard describes as a private conversation in which Saltzman insisted on speaking out publicly about issues Saltzman is concerned about. Leonard says he’s taking the same tack now with the Chasse case. Saltzman’s office declined to comment.

“This is not about a power struggle,” Leonard says. “What it is about is Dan’s increasingly personal attacks of me at Council, on whatever the issue is.”

The dispute takes its place atop a growing pile of Leonard’s public disagreements with fellow politicos. But his Chasse statement shocked even seasoned City Hall veterans.

Charlie Makinney, a liaison to the Police Bureau under former mayors Vera Katz and Tom Potter when both mayors managed the bureau, says Leonard’s behavior would never have been tolerated by Katz.

“She never, that I know of, threatened consequences to another commissioner for a stand they were taking. But I think commissioners assumed they were not going to make her happy,” Makinney says. “Sam should have that kind of discussion with Randy.”

Leonard confirms he discussed the situation with Adams, who chose last year not to manage the bureau and who has counted on Leonard’s support during his own tumultuous first year.

“Sam is a very thoughtful, contemplative guy, and listened to what I said, and nodded that he understood,” Leonard says. “He respects that, and I appreciate that about Sam.”

READ – Everything about James Chasse

From the Oregonian, October 28, 2009

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request to release a variety of documents in the death of James P. Chasse, Jr., who was beaten by Portland police officers in 2006 as they tried to take him into custody.

An attorney for Chasse’s family had asked the court to set aside a protective order that barred the public release of the documents, which include an internal investigative review and police training records.

But U.S. Magistrate Garr King said he feared that publicity would influence potential jurors in the civil case that is scheduled to go to court next year.

“What I want to do is obtain an untainted jury,” King said.

Tom Steenson, the attorney for the Chasse family, argued in court documents that the city and the police bureau violated the order when they announced the findings of an internal review last month. Steenson also asserted that the order has prevented him and the family from commenting on that announcement.

But the city argued that it did not violate the order because it did not release any confidential internal affairs documents.

READ – about Garr King

The Mental Health Action Group at First Unitarian Church of Portland presents a free screening and discussion of the eye-opening public television program MINDS ON THE EDGE: Facing Mental Illness.

Thursday, October 29, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
1211 SW Main St., Portland

Mental Health Action Group: www.mhag.homestead.com or www.firstunitarianportland.org

Learn more about Minds on the Edge at www.mindsontheedge.org

See – flyer for Minds on the Edge, presented by the Mental Health Action Group

Mike Quinn has graciously donated post-production services for ALIEN BOY, a documentary film about what happened to James Chasse produced by the Mental Health Association of Portland. Quinn is the co-founder of Mission Control, an internationally renowned post-production house here in Portland. Here he is in the “machine room” down there:

QUINN: “This video recorder cost $150,000.” BOO-YA!

“I’ve just got to post a Quicktime for NBC to look at, real quick,” said Quinn, when we dropped in this afternoon to take a look at the facilities. At his desk, three monitors stood next to a huge plasma screen TV, as a commercial for an electronics manufacturer played away. Quinn pushed a few buttons, called a colleague, and told him, “that file is on your desktop.” You get the sense he’s a man comfortable with complex technology:

CABLES:“These are all connected to something…”

Quinn started in television while at high school in Idaho. He got a job as a cameraman aged 15 at KALEW TV, after showing up and pretty much refusing to go away. For three years he was a photographer on the TV show Fishing The West, “and I was in my early twenties,” he laughs, “going and fishing the best fishing spots in the country with some of the best guides, but all I wanted at the time was to be in the city with my buddies.”

After 31 years in the business he now edits commercials for clients such as Nike, Nutrisystem, Coca Cola, EA Sports, Seadoo, as well as offering some of his many edit suites out to independent film makers. In the 1980s, Quinn worked with director Jim Blashfield on famous videos for the likes of Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush (Don’t Give Up), Paul Simon (Boy In The Bubble), and even Tears for Fears (Sowing The Seeds Of Love)—which won the MTV award for Breakthrough Video.

Hearing the list of Quinn’s clients was already pretty intimidating. But when he told us about those music videos, we were pretty taken aback. That Sowing The Seeds Of Love video, for example, is world famous.

Quinn shot the first ever music video, he thinks, for Portland punk band Poison Idea, back in the early 1980s, using a Portapak on loan from Jefferson High School. “It was a magnet school for culture students back then,” he says, of the ailing high school in North Portland, that is still famous for athletics, less so for having “the biggest TV studio in the city, including TV stations,” as it was back then.

EYE FOR DETAIL: Quinn Reviews A Commercial With Editor Matt Demarest

Anne Galisky, the director of Papers, a documentary about undocumented schoolchildren, was in one of Quinn’s edit suites this afternoon, working on color correction with Mission Control colorist Slater Dixon. “I love this place,” said Galisky. “They’ve been wonderful. We had a sold-out screening the other day, and people thought the film was shot on 35mm film, and that was the impact that this place had.”

“We’re about perfection,” says Quinn. “We try not to let anything out of the door that leaves any doubt for the audience about what they are watching.”

Mission Control will do color correction on ALIEN BOY, and add some graphics. “All motion pictures get color graded,” says Quinn. “We want to give the film a polished look.”

“Sometimes people are given power who aren’t necessarily ready for it,” says Quinn, when asked what attracted him to donate to the film. “This is an important project—knowing what happened to James Chasse, sometimes there are people who need to step up and pay for what they’ve done.”

Everything about Mission Control feels slick. From the multiple monitors to the incredible screening room (with Hollywood lights), to the well-stocked fridge in the kitchen. ALIEN BOY has hit the big time.

From the East Oregonian, October 25, 2009

The long goodbye – Eastern Oregon Training Center disperses clients across the state

The activity room at Eastern Oregon Training Center is hushed now, only the bubbling of a fish tank breaking the ghostly silence.

Direct care staffer Eileen Waggoner can still hear echoes of voices and laughter in her mind from days gone by, along with soft jazz from the boom box, a whirlwind of cutting and pasting, tambourine banging, Yahtzee and Bingo, the planting of marigold seeds.

Now most of the clients are moved out to residential settings and even the nine fish in the activity room need homes. The final three clients move out Tuesday.

EOTC has been on and off the chopping block for years, but finally the axe blade hit firmly this year when Oregon legislators directed that EOTC’s 40 residents move to smaller neighborhood group housing by the end of October.

“It’s really sad – I’ve been here 28 years,” Waggoner said. “They are family.

Nurse Conrad Bozlee worked two stints at EOTC, plus ten years at Salem’s Fairview Training Center. Bozlee said care of the developmentally disabled has evolved from warehousing to immersion.

“At the turn of the century, institutions were built to remove them from the spotlight,” he said. “They were considered to be evil – a blight on society. It was a fancy way to say they were scum.”

Fairview opened in 1908 as the Oregon State Institution for the Feeble-Minded. During World War II, society softened its view, Bozlee said, and began viewing the developmentally disabled as innocents who would forever remain children. Institutionalizing them, however, was still the norm.

Later, civil rights activism prompted changes.

“A lot of money went into mainstreaming,” Bozlee said. “People started asking, ‘Why are these people in prison when they never committed a crime?’”

With the latest move to community settings, he said, “Oregon is actually ahead of the curve.”

Still, some question how the most severely disabled will adjust in their new living situations. Some behaviors are scary to the uninitiated, everything from repetitive rocking and moaning to hitting or incontinence. Most common killers of the DD population are aspiration of food, constipation, dehydration and seizures.

EOTC staffer Christina Pierce is comfortable navigating in this world. She felt disbelief, then enormous sadness at news of the impending closure.

“It’s getting easier,” she said, “but the first move was pretty emotional for everyone.”

She talked as she readied medication for Keith Middleton, who sat down the hall in a wheelchair, head cocked to the side, watching television.

“Hi, Buddy,” she said, as she entered the room.

A smile lighted Middleton’s face as he turned to look at Pierce. Laughing, he greeted her and asked what was for lunch. Middleton is leaving soon for Portland, Pierce said.

The concept of moving is a tough one to grasp, say EOTC staff, but residents seem to understand. They see photos of their future home, make visits and meet their caretakers before moving day, but still find it tough.

One man balked when he arrived at his new home. It took a couple of tries, plus pizza, to lure him out of the van.

“He got more adjusted as the day went on,” said Waggoner, who has visited him several times.

Steve Bailey has worked at the training center since 1974 and is now responsible for finding placements for residents.

The matching process is complex, he said, connecting clients’ personalities and mental and physical challenges with homes and caretakers. A client with autism, he said, needs routine, while others may require ramps and roll-in showers for wheelchairs. Provider homes are found both locally and around the state.

Some former EOTC employees are now working in the provider homes or providing foster care. The placement process has gone more smoothly than Bailey or or his assistant Andy Speden thought possible.

Neighbors of the group homes are greeting the new residents with varying degrees of acceptance, said Bailey. While some come bearing cookies and handshakes, others have expressed worry.

To the latter, Bailey said, “They are innocent people – they mean you no harm. They are going to be great neighbors.”

Bailey will follow their progress for a year as an employee of the state’s “On the Move in Oregon” program. The program helps institutionalized populations transfer to community settings accompanied by wrap-around packages of supports and services.

The move to group homes draws criticism from some quarters.

Jody Lamberson, a former EOTC employee who retired earlier with back problems, fears for the clients. At EOTC, they had vocational activities and highly-trained advocates, she said. Now, Lamberson fears, their care will diminish.

“It’s killing me to see where they are putting them,” she said, “people that I loved and trained.”

She lamented the number of jobs lost, including that of her husband.

“My husband has worked there for 20 years,” she said. “He’s getting kicked to the curb.”

Wyndi Kannier, a staffing coordinator since 1993, heard rumors of closure the day she started. Nothing materialized then or with subsequent moves to shut down EOTC. She reacted with disbelief two years ago when the rumors resurfaced. Now, with training center doors poised to latch shut, it’s finally sunk in.

“It’s surreal,” Kannier said. “It gives you a knot in your gut.”

“I really didn’t believe it until maybe six months ago,” Waggoner agreed. “Then it hit me – this is really coming true.”

As the clients leave the only home they’ve known for years, they take a little piece of EOTC with them. Waggoner and other staff are tearing apart photo albums and creating small books for residents to pack in their suitcases.

Waggoner opened one of the albums and looked at the photographic record of trips to Round-Up, a train ride to Mt. Hood, birthday parties, residents in Halloween costumes, Special Olympics, walking on the beach or riding the amusement rides at Silverwood. Nostalgia washed over Waggoner’s face as she looked at the albums.

“They’re special people,” she said.

The training center started as the Eastern Oregon State Hospital in 1909. Inside what some called “The Stone Mother” lived hundreds of mentally ill or developmentally disabled patients.

In 1985, the hospital, displaced by the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, divided in two, the Eastern Oregon Psychiatric Center caring for mentally and emotionally-disturbed patients and Eastern Oregon Training Center housing developmentally disabled residents across the street in what used to be staff housing.

What will become of the campus is still evolving. The Community Developmental Disabilities Program recently moved into offices there. Pendleton House, a facility for criminally insane individuals, takes up one corner of the campus.

READ – Governor’s press release: Eastern Oregon Training Center stays open, 2007

Guest opinion from the Oregonian, October 23, 2009


Scott Westerman, president of the Portland Police Association, gets the case of James Chasse wrong from beginning to end in his recent commentary in The Oregonian (“Punishing the police won’t help us heal,” Oct. 13).


Just whom does he mean by “us”? The police officers he represents?

On Sept. 30, the Mental Health Association of Portland asked the City Council to remove from patrol duty the officers who chased down and brutally beat Chasse, leading to his death. Three officers. Not all officers. Just three. “Off patrol duty” is not punishment. Ten years in prison for manslaughter involving a mentally ill person is punishment. We asked for accountability.

After a week of silence from city commissioners, we called for the three officers to voluntarily resign. We don’t want them to be Portland police officers any longer, and resignations, we believe, offer a path toward redemption: a positive, healing first step in rebuilding trust and respect, one that only the officers could make, failing action from leadership. The three officers did not resign.

Reasonable, well-trained police officers are vital partners for those who care for the welfare of persons with mental illness. They hold an irreplaceable position in the continuum of our care. We’ve supported additional training for officers to understand mental illness and anticipate crises. We appreciate the many changes made at the state, county and city level to address this issue. But to confuse the trust and respect needed for effective policing with the brutal actions of Sept. 17, 2006, is irresponsible.

I knew James Chasse in high school, and my father also had schizophrenia. So I’ve paid close attention to the issue from the beginning. But the lengthy and inadequate response from the city of Portland transformed me from an interested observer to an active advocate.

Since Chasse’s death, I’ve wondered about officers’ opinions: Do they see the actions of their peers as excusable? As being within normal procedure? Do they think they would have done the same thing? Does police training skew one’s humanity?

Westerman asks Portlanders to equate the behavior of the three officers with the many hard-working men and women on the force who help us make better communities. He asks us to believe that all other Portland officers would cruelly beat a slight, frightened and nonthreatening man — and then fight to justify the beating as “within policy.” In doing so, Westerman degrades the entire Police Bureau.

Westerman’s role as a union spokesman puts him in the unenviable position of defending the indefensible. My mother was a shop steward. I know unions play an important role in providing a balance of power for individual employees. I feel genuine sympathy for officers whose union dues are spent defending the indefensible actions of three of their colleagues.

I’m no longer shocked by the absurdities of what Westerman had to say, but his words will not move our city forward. For our city’s sake, it’s critical that we hear from leadership unconstrained by union demands. We all need to hear now from Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the bureau.

Last week the Mental Health Association of Portland got a call from the city asking for a private meeting with Saltzman and Sizer. We declined. Impunity is a subject best discussed in the bright light of public access. Instead, we offered to host a public meeting so both Saltzman and Sizer can be heard and understood directly. So far they haven’t responded.

Mary Wheeler is a board member of the Mental Health Association of Portland.

From the Oregonian, October 22, 2009

Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard said Thursday he can no longer hide his feelings about police handling of the James Chasse case just because the city is facing a federal lawsuit in the death.

“That has nothing to do with justice, worrying about legal positioning when a man like Mr. Chasse is dead,” Leonard said. “If the Police Bureau caused Mr. Chasse’s death and the county denied him medical care, we should pay his family and we shouldn’t have to have a judge tell us to do it.”

Chasse, 42, died of massive internal injuries in police custody after he was chased down for urinating in public. The death in 2006 triggered a cascade of public outrage and criticism of how police treated the mentally ill man.

During a City Council meeting Wednesday, Leonard called Chasse’s death inexcusable. He said the Police Bureau’s three-year internal investigation, which eventually cleared all but one officer, should have taken 90 days.

Then Thursday, Leonard said he should have stood up before now. “If I, as a city commissioner, view an injustice, I should speak out about the rightness and the wrongness of people under my control,” he said.

Leonard’s comments come after recent public disagreements with City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Police Bureau. While the remarks expose a simmering rift between the two leaders, they also put the city and police in an uncomfortable position in the lawsuit filed by Chasse’s family.

Mayor Sam Adams declined to address Leonard’s statements. He said he supports an independent review of the case by City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade, who plans to hire an outside expert to evaluate the quality of the police investigation.

“I am waiting for that before I draw my own conclusions,” Adams said.

Multnomah County settled its part of the lawsuit this past summer for $925,000, but the city’s part of the case is set for trial in March. The suit accuses officers of excessive force and the police and paramedics of failing to provide adequate medical attention.

Two Portland officers — Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice — and then-Multnomah County sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton, who is now a Portland officer, arrested Chasse after he appeared to be urinating in the street. Chasse ran, the officers chased him, knocked him to the ground and struggled to handcuff him.

An autopsy showed Chasse suffered 26 breaks to 16 ribs, some of which punctured his left lung; 46 separate abrasions or contusions on his body, including six to the head; and 19 strikes to the torso.

Medics at the scene said his vital signs were normal and he was taken to jail. But jail staff members refused to book him because of his physical condition. He died while being taken to the hospital in a police car.

In the internal investigation, Police Chief Rosie Sizer found that Nice violated bureau policy when he failed to have Chasse taken to the hospital as required for certain people once they’ve been stunned by a Taser.

Leonard and the Police Bureau have long been at odds. Last year, he clashed with Sizer when she said she wouldn’t work for him if he got the job overseeing the bureau. Adams then had Saltzman become police commissioner.

Now, Leonard and Saltzman are squabbling. Saltzman won’t back Leonard’s desire to train Water Bureau security guards as police officers and give them guns and Saltzman voted last week against Leonard’s proposal to buy a new high-speed rescue boat for the Portland Fire Bureau.

Then Wednesday, the two again disagreed during a council debate over releasing the names of people arrested by the city’s special force of police officers who go after drug dealers and chronic drug users. Saltzman wanted to keep the list secret, but Leonard pushed for its release and the rest of the council backed him.

Saltzman has suggested alternatives to armed water guards: using existing police, contracting with another police agency such as the Sheriff’s Office or perhaps creating an interagency task force, much like the collaborative effort among metro area police to patrol MAX trains.

“We don’t need more guns in Portland parks,” Saltzman said. “We don’t need another Chasse case in the city parks.”

Overall, he said, he and Leonard agree more often than they disagree. He’s just doing the job he was elected to do, he said.

“Commissioners have the right to ask questions on any policy matters,” Saltzman said. “I’m sorry that certain people take offense at that.”

Leonard will delay a council discussion on the Water Bureau security guards for two weeks to look at alternatives.

From the Portland Tribune, October 22, 2009, & see OUR COMMENT below.

Frustration builds as county crisis center proposal falls short

The closet-sized room near the emergency department entrance at Oregon Health & Science University isn’t much — a few chairs, a footstool and a counter. It’s not a place police officers want to spend time, but frequently it is a place where they spend half their day, or more, finishing paperwork or just hanging around.

That’s because nearly every day Portland police officers pick up people from the streets who are suffering psychotic episodes and might be dangerous to themselves or to others. The officer has the option of taking that person to jail, which police say usually doesn’t make sense. The other option is a trip to a hospital emergency room, where staff can assess the newly arrived patient and eventually find placement, most likely in a hospital psychiatric room.

That’s where the little waiting room comes in. Police officers are required to stay with people they have brought in until a physician tells them they can leave. But with inpatient psychiatric rooms often filled, and hospital psychiatrists often unavailable, assessment and placement can take hours. So the police officers wait.

Police had hoped that a solution to this longstanding issue was at hand, now that Multnomah County is proceeding with a new crisis assessment and treatment center for mental health patients. But ironically, as plans for this project become clearer, it appears that police officers still will be left frustrated — and still waiting.

In July, county commissioners voted to build the new crisis center, also known as a sub-acute facility, to fill what police, mental health providers and hospitals have long seen as a serious gap in mental health services. The new center would share space in a building that houses nonprofit Central City Concern’s David P. Hooper Detoxification Center, east of the Burnside Bridge. Remodeling for the new center is expected to begin next spring.

In most American cities, police can take people displaying psychosis to a psychiatric emergency room — similar to a regular hospital emergency room but set up to quickly triage psychiatric patients and get them off the hands of the police. Portland hasn’t had such a facility since the county’s Northeast Portland crisis triage center closed in 2001, but some sort of triage center is what Portland Assistant Police Chief Brian Martinek would like from the new sub-acute facility.

He’s not going to get it, however, largely because a number of conflicting interests have prevailed.

Administrators at local hospitals would like the center to relieve them of the hundreds of psychiatric patients — many uninsured — who clog their emergency departments even though they don’t need traditional emergency services.

Mental health advocates want a place where people in need of immediate psychiatric care and assessment are not mixed in with others who may be experiencing severe psychosis and needing physical restraint.

So the county’s plan calls for a 16-bed facility that would use the sanctuary model of care favored by many hospital psychiatric facilities, and that emphasizes minimal use of restraint and seclusion on patients who appear to be out of control.

Not enough money

Joanne Fuller, director of the Multnomah County Department of Human Services, which runs the public mental health system that will include the new center, says the renovation project is expected to cost between $3 million and $4 million. The county has spent $1 million to move the detox center, freeing up space at the Hooper building, which freed up $2 million of Portland Development Commission funds for the remodeling. Fuller says the county is still working on finding the last $1 million to $2 million.

The county estimates that operating the new center could cost around $3 million per year, about half of which could come from Oregon Health Plan coverage of patients. Fuller says the county doesn’t yet know where the rest of the money is going to come from — though some money currently spent on hospitalization of mental health patients might be reallocated to the center.

The shortage of available cash will require the new center to perform a limited role, with most patients there no more than 10 days. The hope is that short stays will help patients stabilize to the point that they can access community outpatient mental health services.

What nobody wants, according to Ed Blackburn, Central City Concern’s executive director, is a repeat of the last version of a crisis triage center. Blackburn says that plans for that facility were too grand, including 10 units of housing, case managers to help residents, a sub-acute facility with four holding rooms for triage, and a pharmacy.

In the end, Blackburn says, there wasn’t enough funding to support the old facility.

“What you had was a lot of people coming in to get their prescriptions refilled and it was a drop off place for police. Once the services started being taken away it collapsed,” Blackburn says.

No place for restraint

The less ambitious sub-acute center, which the county hopes to open by late 2011 or early 2012, has a chance of succeeding, according to Blackburn.

“This is going to be much more focused on people who are actually in crisis,” he says. “We’re not going to try to do too much.”

That is why the police won’t have their dropoff station.

Fuller says the new center will not be the place for people who need restraint, but it might be appropriate for some patients in psychosis who don’t appear violent.

Under current plans, if police officers think they have someone appropriate for the new center, they first would need to have the county’s mental health call center or Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare’s mobile Project Respond unit authorize placement at the new center.

But assistant chief Martinek says Project Respond too often is not available to police, who need an immediate response. And calls to the crisis line will put police officers in the position of having to assess the status of the person they’ve just picked up — a role Martinek says police would rather not have.

But that extra assessment step, Fuller says, will help keep the new center from becoming overloaded with patients who need detox from drugs or drinking more than they need mental health services — a problem at the previous crisis triage center.

The police often pick up people who need emergency medical treatment before they need mental health triage. County officials want to keep those pickups from overcrowding the center as well.

“If you become a triage center, you become an emergency center and you fill up too soon,” says David Hidalgo, senior operations manger for Multnomah County’s mental health division.

All of which leaves the police still looking for a way to disengage from assessing and spending time with psychotic citizens.

“This doesn’t solve the police problem,” Martinek says. “The mental health field and the law enforcement field are in way different places philosophically.”

OUR COMMENT – The Portland Police Bureau are not the users of this facility, or the deciders about what services are provided by this facility. The PPB, and the City of Portland, are not financial contributors to the project. The County has a long-standing agreement that it’s mental health services are PATIENT CENTERED. That means the needs and interests of the PATIENT are the foremost consideration in the planning and delivery of services.

The police are impatient for a solution to what they now are recognizing as a long-term shortcoming in their orientation to the issue of mental illness. For thousands of years they’ve been the cruel cudgel, the push out the door, the clang of a cell door. Now, with limited insight into their role as punishers of persons with mental illness, they’re seeking quick solutions.

Secondly, this facility is far from defined. The county plans many public meetings to develop a complete service plan. The police are going to be part of that planning – but it won’t be a drag-and-drop.

From Fred Friendly Seminars, Minds on the Edge – 2009

With Stephen G. Breyer, Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., Pete Earley, Frederick J. Frese III, Ph.D., Avel Gordly, Eric R. Kandel, M.D., Judge Steven Leifman, Estelle Richman, Elyn Saks, Thomas A. Simpatico, M.D., Tracey Skale, M.D., Lauren Spiro, Susan Stefan, Sam Tsemberis, Ph.D.

New Visions of Mind and Crisis with Ed Knight and Will Hall

Wednesday, November 18th, 6 PM – 8:30 PM
Bamboo Grove Salon 134 SE Taylor (on 2nd street between SE Taylor and SE Salmon), Portland OR – Map
$8 – $15 donation (no one turned away) benefits Portland Hearing Voices. Physical mobility accessible; call with other access needs.

Info: Portland Hearing Voices 413-210-2803, portlandhearingvoices@gmail.com

Two spiritual practitioners diagnosed with schizophrenia ask,

Is “mental illness” spiritual?
How does trauma relate to enlightenment?
What do Eastern religious traditions tell us about madness?
Are there holistic treatment alternatives?
Can we acknowledge spirit without romanticizing crisis?

Join us for a presentation and discussion to discover new perspectives in mental health.

Ed Knight is dually diagnosed with schizophrenia and alcoholism, the Steward of The Healing Circle, a Zen Peacemaker Circle, and a Senior in the Buddhist Zen Peacemaker Sangha. A widely recognized researcher and teacher in mental illness recovery and mutual support, Ed is Vice President of Recovery, Rehabilitation and Mutual Support at Valueoptions, as well as a mentor in the Prison Dharma Network.

Will Hall is diagnosed with schizophrenia and his advocacy work includes Portland Hearing Voices, Mental Disability Rights International, The Icarus Project, and hosting Madness Radio, heard on KBOO FM. A longtime meditator and yoga practitioner, Will is currently studying Process Oriented Psychology. Will was featured in the Newsweek magazine article “Listening to Madness.”

Tendremos una mini-presentacion en espanol para participantes hispanohablantes.

Radio interviews with Ed Knight and Will Hall here:

Will interviews Ed about Buddhist Meditation and Schizophrenia
Will interviews Ed about Recovery and Transformation

About Portland Hearing Voices: Founded by schizophrenia survivor Will Hall, Portland Hearing Voices organizes support groups, educational events, holistic alternatives, training, and counseling resources for people who experience voices, visions, and different realities often labeled as mental disorders. (Fiscally sponsored by Mental Health Association of Portland)

Co-sponsored by: Portland Hearing Voices and ValueOptions, Portland Evolver, Portland Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, Mental Health Association of Portland, Mental Health Association of Oregon, and Process Work Institute.