Two too many precious lives have been lost in the past two years. The “blind eye” that has been watching our children to ensure their safety, must end.

If there had been a fire in the dorm (heaven forbid), and your child died in that fire, you would look to make sure that all fire safety laws and practices had been in place. If they were not, wouldn’t you hold the college responsible?

Illegal drug use is no different. We entrust our children to Reed College, not just for their physical safety from fire and intruders, but also for their emotional safety. There must be more counseling for students who feel stress. Counselors must not prescribe sleeping pills (take a chemical, it will make you feel better). Healthy lifestyles, including exercise, a regular schedule, time and stress management should be prescribed. Students who use/distribute illegal drugs should be expelled, not just suspended, to send a strong message to the student population.

We do appreciate all the consideration and help the administration has afforded us. I am sure they feel the pain, too. We thank them for their consideration and cooperation.

Those who feel the District Attorney and Department of Justice are being too harsh on the college administration need to stop and think: my child is still alive, but for how long? Let the appropriate parties eliminate the drugs on campus, and please tell the Reed College community that there must be zero tolerance for drug abuse so no more precious lives are wasted.

We would have loved to have met you all at Sam’s graduation, but that will never be.

Respectfully submitted,
Barbara and Alan Tepper
Parents of Sam Tepper

READ – Authorities to Reed College: Crack down on campus drugs, USA Today
READ – Reed College’s President Is Told to Crack Down on Campus Drug Use, NY Times
READ – District Attorney: Reed Needs “Zero Tolerance Policy” for Drugs at Renn Fayre, Portland Mercury
READ – Confronting Drug Abuse at Reed, interview with Colin Diver, Reed President
READ – Reed’s long, patronizing and overly-complicated drug & alcohol policy

The race for Portland City Commission, Position No. 3 has drawn an unusual mix of candidates – even a board member from the Mental Health Association of Portland – to run against incumbent Dan Saltzman. These include Dan, Jesse Cornett, Mary Volm, Spencer Burton, Ed Garren, Martha Perez and Michael Courtney. We’ve asked them all (but Jason) to tell us their position on mental health issues.

Meet Jesse Cornett, candidate for Portland City Commission, Position No. 3

Mental Health services cost money, and I will work with Multnomah County commissioners, state legislators, as well as the federal delegation, to increase funding for mental health services. Multnomah County is the biggest mental health care provider in the state, and the City of Portland cannot begin to address the crisis without them as a partner.

As the only candidate to have attended a police academy and serve in uniform (I was a Reserve Deputy Sheriff from 1998-2001), I saw first hand the challenges the officers on our street face. When my closest friend, Ray Gwerder was gunned down by a police sniper in 2005, I began my journey to understand the depth of the mental health crisis in Portland and the inability of our police to deal effectively with it. We have a choice to make as a society — do we want to address mental illness at the front end with treatment or at the back end with law enforcement.

I firmly believe that the most compassionate response to mental illness is early treatment, and our police have been forced into an inappropriate role on the front lines of our mental health crisis. Indeed, they tend to even ignore the mental health crisis within the bureau. As a community, we cannot thrive until we collectively prioritize dealing with these issues. We can sweep them under the rug no longer. We must fund services and train officers better.

For more information about my campaign, please visit jessecornett.com or call us at 503-360-1417

The race for Portland City Commission, Position No. 3 has drawn an unusual mix of candidates – even a board member from the Mental Health Association of Portland – to run against incumbent Dan Saltzman. These include Dan, Jesse Cornett, Mary Volm, Spencer Burton, Ed Garren, Martha Perez and Michael Courtney. We’ve asked them all (but Jason) to tell us their position on mental health issues.

Meet Ed Garren, candidate for Portland City Commission, Position No. 3

There are 8 candidates in the race for seat #3, Portland City Commission. I am the only licensed clinician in the race, I have been a licensed LMFT since 1990 (in Oregon since 2007). I have provided direct support or management in programs which serve homeless, alcoholics and addicts, persons with mental health needs, and families. I also have six years experience of consulting work with the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments dealing with the types of community issues we are now facing in Portland.

The vital work we do is always the first thing that gets cut when times get hard (along with the arts), and after decades of cuts, we are overworked, underfunded and our community faces serious problems, particularly homeless persons with mental health and addiction issues. We need to provide housing for these people, and the rate at which we are doing it is not acceptable.

You can find a lot of information about my candidacy, my stand on many issues, my resume, and other items on my campaign web site, www.EdForPDX.com. I can be emailed at EdForPDX@gmail.com if you have any specific questions.

Thank you for your time and interest, Edward “Ed” Garren, MA, LMFT

From the Oregonian April 26, 2010

by Dawn Menken

Our children are precious. We adore them, cherish them and provide for them. So how is it that they can be so cruel? We read about bullying and we wonder, whose kids do these things?

The answer is our kids. It’s not other families. Bullying is in our families, too. Shocking headlines about children who commit suicide because they’re tormented by bullies numb us to the everyday hurtful interactions that are precursors to more dangerous behaviors.

Children reflect behavior they learn at home, in school and in the world at large. In fact, children are frequently more free to say things that most adults self-censor. Here’s an earful:

“You have weird hair.”

“You look like a boy.”

“Your food’s disgusting. Hey, look at this gross food Elijah’s eating!”

“You’re so stupid! You ran the wrong way! Ha, ha ha!”

“You’re a baby. Look, Sam’s crying.”

“You throw like a girl.”

“You can’t play. We have enough people.”

“Don’t you think you’re too old for that?”

That’s just a small sample of the seemingly insignificant remarks one hears daily in the schoolyard. Such common put-downs boost the self-esteem of the speaker and create insiders and outsiders. They’re words that seem of little consequence but deeply hurt, words that declare an order of dominance and enforce behavioral norms.

Children clearly get the message that differences won’t be tolerated. They don’t react for fear of being mercilessly teased. They allow others to define them and the norms of what’s culturally acceptable.

Looking at the statements overheard in one hour at recess tells us about the restricted culture children are creating — or re-creating. They learn quickly: There are strict gender roles to adhere to. There are certain ways of dress and appearance that need to be followed. Kids better be smart and cool. Failure and mistakes are huge humiliations. Avoid unfamiliar foods or cultures. Don’t be emotional or express feelings.

Schools and families that foster a culture that truly values the diverse nature of individuals lay the groundwork for bully-free schools and homes. But championing diversity is no simple feat. Many of us who seek a world of equality and diversity miss how we marginalize our inner diversity.

Ask yourself: Are we a family that values rational thought and feels uncomfortable with emotions? Are we aware how our children tease others for their emotional expression? Do we value only excellence and success? Are we aware that when we give children no room to fail they become increasingly impatient and critical of others?

Are we aware how we might inadvertently uphold certain gender attributes, even subtly, in terms of dress, looks, expectations and behaviors? Do we question our children’s one-sidedness and offer alternative views of the world? Do we help our children use their talents for the good of us all or just encourage them to dominate and excel in the world that they feel most comfortable in? Do we allow and encourage a diversity of opinion and thought, as well as feelings and emotional expression in our homes?

When our child is sad or hurt about something, do we validate that feeling and take it seriously? When our child is angry, do we tell him there’s no reason to be angry, or can we understand and appreciate his feeling even though we might not share it? When our child has an opinion, do we challenge it and inadvertently minimize it? When we as parents speak out strongly and are upset with our children, do we encourage them to also give their view even when it might go against us?

Think about this: If our children feel they cannot speak up to us, can we expect them to stand up to a bully?

Dawn Menken of Portland is a psychotherapist and conflict resolution educator. www.dawnmenken.com

From the Hillsboro Argus, April 23, 2010

The counties that make up the Portland metropolitan area say they need to establish a more collaborative approach in providing mental health services, but not at the cost of long established local connections with their communities.

This was the conclusion of a Three-County Leadership Group from Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties who met in January with Facilitator Barbara Mauer of MCCP Consultants to discuss the first steps toward regionalization of mental health services.

Washington County Health Services Director Rod Branyan says a simplified cross-county mental health care delivery system avoids costly duplication of services and ensures availability of essentials.

The regional entity would be responsible for both Medicaid and non-Medicaid services.

With proper management, a regionalized system could provide far-reaching benefits, especially through economies of scale.

This could range from such collaborative efforts as joint purchasing, mutual aid, lead agency designation, fiscal agent designation and joint ventures.

Branyan said users of mental health services also want the freedom to be able to move from one city to another within the metropolitan area without having to fill out a kaleidoscopic variety of forms from several different providers.

But an outright merger must be careful to avoid concentrating available resources disproportionately in urban areas, said Washington County Mental Health Director Kim Burgess. While Multnomah County has 1,613 persons per square mile, Washington County has only 722, and Clackamas only 201.

“We have really different demographics in each of the three counties,” she said. The populations also differ in their Oregon Health Program enrollment, poverty, homelessness and distribution of ethnicities and language.

Per county, mental health services required by the state cost between $21 million and $52 million. In Washington and Multnomah counties, almost all are subcontracted to nonprofits, while in Clackamas County they are performed by county workers, Burgess said.

A merger could also increase overall administrative costs and defeat the whole purpose, she said.

Washington County Commissioner Andy Duyck said it’s clear the entire region is reaching critical mass when it comes to taking care of the mentally ill.

Burgess said it’s most important to establish a uniform authority form for returning services. A simple set of rules would give the counties the ability to work on collaborations already in motion, while preserving community services not typically served by large regional entities, she said.

From the Salem Statesman Journal, April 25, 2010

Prison to adapt to mental illnesses – Salem unit will be converted to help deal with rising population

Nearly half of Oregon’s 14,000 prisoners — 6,797 — are mentally ill, according to the Department of Corrections.

This troubling convict population has boomed during the past decade and now is 10 times larger than the mental patient population at the 627-bed Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

Alarmed by the rising number of mentally ill convicts, prison officials plan to create a new multipurpose mental health center at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, just south of the state hospital.

The penitentiary’s “super max” unit, officially called the Intensive Management Unit, will be converted into three therapy-minded units.

For two decades, the IMU has operated as a tightly controlled compound within the now-2,000-inmate prison. It corrals belligerent and disruptive inmates — some mentally ill — in their cells for more than 23 hours per day.

By the end of this year, the two-story IMU facility will get a facelift to soften its austere environment, and will begin serving a therapeutic role.

“With the types of programs we want to bring in there, we need to bring in some acoustic sound proofing and lighten it up with some paint,” said Brian Belleque, DOC administrator for the west side institutions.

Mental health services are planned for three of the four units in the IMU building:

A 49-bed mental health infirmary will provide “crisis stabilizing” treatment for acutely mentally ill offenders, including inmates who attempt suicide or commit other acts of self-harm.

A 65-bed day-treatment unit will provide mental health services for inmates coming out of the crisis-care unit. The so-called “step down” program also will provide preventative mental health services for inmates, designed to help them cope with their illnesses and avoid crises.

A 73-bed behavioral unit will provide specialized services and supervision for disruptive mentally ill inmates who otherwise might end up in isolation cells.

Another change in the looming makeover of the IMU calls for Oregon’s death row to occupy one unit of the building. Condemned killers currently are housed in another part of the penitentiary.

Oregon’s first “super max”

The IMU opened in 1991 as one of the nation’s first so-called “super max” prison units.

Costing about $10 million, the 192-bed facility was designed to take the steam out of troublesome inmates who “compromised the safety of the prison system.”

Prisoners can get dispatched to IMU for varied reasons, ranging from assaults on fellow inmates to prison drug dealing to hurling urine or feces at officers.

Security protocols go to extraordinary lengths in the IMU. When an inmate leaves his cell, usually to shower or exercise, he is handcuffed, tethered with a leash and escorted by two officers.

The only way to get out of the super-max unit is to obey the rules and pass multi-level requirements.

Prison officials say the IMU has paid safety dividends by removing assaultive and disruptive convicts from the general prison population, thereby helping to keep the peace behind prison walls.

But IMU critics long have complained that inmates are subjected to cruel stints of extreme isolation, sensory deprivation and profound loneliness.

With the end of the state penitentiary’s IMU, some inmates now held in the compound will be relocated to another “super max” IMU at the Snake River Correctional Institution in eastern Oregon.

And some IMU inmates with mental health needs will reside in the new units at the Salem prison.

The price tag is estimated at $80,000 for remodeling work at the penitentiary’s IMU, adding more bunks at Snake River’s IMU and other changes, officials said.

“The overall cost is actually pretty minimal given the scope of the project,” Belleque said.

Mentally ill pack prisons

State prisons and county jails in Oregon increasingly have become warehouses for mentally ill criminals.

Oregon isn’t alone. What’s sometimes called “criminalization of the mentally ill” has become a national trend.

“We’re in line with most of the other departments of corrections in other states,” said Jana Russell, the Oregon prison system’s assistant administrator for mental health services. “A good 50 percent of the population with mental health diagnoses seems to be the standard now.”

By comparison, mentally ill inmates made up 13 percent of Oregon’s prison population in 2001.

Prison statistics for that year show 1,362 inmates were diagnosed with mental illness, and the prison system housed 10,200 inmates.

The number of mentally ill inmates has climbed steadily since then. Reasons given for the troubling trend range from a spike in drug-induced psychoses linked to methamphetamine abuse to shortages of community-based mental health services.

“I think that one of the issues is related to the resources that are currently available in communities where folks live,” Russell said. “When there are no mental health services, things obviously don’t go well for those folks.”

In Oregon, criminal defendants found guilty of crimes but insane at the time go to the state hospital’s forensic program for treatment instead of to prison.

It’s hard to pin down why far more mentally ill criminals land in the prison system than at the state hospital, but mental health advocates say some prisoners diagnosed with mental illness may not have been ill when they committed their crimes. In other cases, defense attorneys may have opted against pursuing an insanity defense, reasoning that a prison sentence would prove to be shorter than a stay at the state hospital.

In a prison system bulging with mentally ill inmates, minimal care is the norm. All of the nearly 7,000 inmates diagnosed with mental illness are eligible for “case management,” meaning periodic meetings with a mental health specialist.

“When their symptoms are active, they receive care,” Russell said. “However, we focus most of our resources on the highest-needs inmates.”

Though the penitentiary has an existing psychiatric unit with about the same number of beds as the planned 49-bed infirmary, officials emphasized that the new crisis-care unit will be complemented by the two adjacent mental health programs.

“It doesn’t complete our mission, but it’s a giant step forward,” Russell said.

Suicides occur in isolation

For years, mentally ill inmates have been among the disruptive inmates placed in prison disciplinary segregation units and IMUs. In some cases, extreme isolation and mental illness have proved to be a deadly combination.

Since August 1998, at least 28 inmates have committed suicide in Oregon’s prison system. The majority hanged themselves in segregation cells.

A 2007 Statesman Journal examination of prison suicides found that more than half of the inmates who took their own lives had known psychiatric problems.

Prison officials said the new behavioral unit will provide specialized help for some mentally ill inmates who otherwise might land in segregation cells.

“They’re not going to be locked down in their cells,” Russell said. “They’re going to be out of their cells for hours a day interacting with a mental health specialist or others in a group if their behavior is appropriate.”

The Salem prison was selected for the expanded mental health programs after prison officials postponed construction of a new prison complex in Junction City, previously earmarked to house specialized programs for mentally ill and elderly inmates.

The penitentiary will serve as the hub of mental health care at least until the Junction City complex gets built, officials said.

DOC plans now envision completion of a 532-bed minimum-security prison in Junction City in the fall of 2014, and completion of a 1,262-bed medium-security prison at the same site in the spring of 2019.

“It’s a stopgap to kind of catch us up to where we should have been over the last 10 to 15 years, and to get us through the next 10 years, if that’s when Junction City comes on line,” Belleque said about the penitentiary’s larger role in mental health care.

Corrections officials said the looming changes at the penitentiary shouldn’t rekindle Salem leaders’ concerns about playing host to five state prisons and the state mental hospital.

“We’re not increasing the population in Salem. We’re not increasing the institutions in Salem,” said Chane Griggs, assistant director of public services for the DOC. “The inmates are still going to release into the counties in which they committed their crimes. Those are key issues that are not changing with this.”

Message from the Portland Police Association’s President Scott Westerman, from March 2010

Immediately after the Aaron Campbell shooting, Chief [Rosie] Sizer stood silent. The community was demanding answers and she stood silent.

There is an obvious disconnect between the public’s expectations of the police and the Police Bureau’s training. While this disconnect may not be growing as quickly as it was immediately following the incident, it certainly hasn’t diminished.

When Chief Sizer finally spoke, she spent most of her time sidestepping the issue. She called attention to herself and the things she’s accomplished since she’s been chief. She asked what people could expect of a bureau that doesn’t have a real training facility. She quoted statistics that show use of force and complaints are down. She continues to give the impression that she alone is responsible for those changes. She gives little acknowledgement to the men and women of the Police Bureau who are truly responsible for these changes.

Still, the most important missing piece is that she has yet to address the disconnect. The disconnect between our training and the public’s expectations. More importantly, the disconnect between the chief and the rank and file officers out there doing the job — the widest I’ve seen in my 21 years as a cop.

By the time of this writing, many of you have gone through In-Service training and had to listen to her blame everyone for the public outcry regarding that disconnect. She goes so far as to blame me, the PPA membership, the City Council and many others for the public scrutiny. Still, she sheds no light on herself. She is clinging to her job and is trying to make herself look better by blasting everyone around her. She tells rooms full of police officers that Mayor [Sam] Adams “is a mess,” Commissioner [Randy] Leonard is a “loose cannon with a grudge,” and Commissioner [Dan] Saltzman is the police commissioner “by default.”

According to the many officers I’ve spoken with who have heard her speak at In-Service, she appears to be trying to make it look like she is the only person protecting line officers from City Council and the public. The ironic thing is no one is calling her on it.

Considering the current mood of the Bureau, there are two logical reasons folks aren’t pushing back on her assertions. First, no one wants to get sent to TRU or be labeled a problem for speaking their mind. Second, no one much cares for what she has to say. It isn’t like she has a lot of credibility among the rank and fi le officers.

Going to In-Service to blame everyone else and take no responsibility for running this Bureau into the ground certainly doesn’t help with the credibility of the officers. I have spent a lot of time writing about issues the PPA has faced, mistakes I’ve made and the actions takes to correct those mistakes. I take full responsibility for the rally on City Hall back in November. I recognize the rally didn’t go over well in certain segments of our community.

The Chief wants to characterize the rally as a failure. On the contrary — the rally was a mechanism for our officers and their supporters to have their voices heard since Chief Sizer and Commissioner Saltzman were ignoring all aspects of the law, due process and were fully willing to throw another one of our officers under the bus. We are a labor organization. That rally was designed to unite our membership for a cause we believed in and still believe in. An injustice to one of us is an injustice to all of us.

We expressed our strength by letting the chief and commissioner know we will no longer sit idly by while they sacrifice another one of our members without so much as an investigation. It highlighted the complete and total disconnect between the chief’s office and the officers she is supposed to be leading.

When the budget proposal is made this month to City Council, Assistant Chief [Brian] Martinek will be the one making the presentation, not Chief Sizer. Some believe it isn’t coincidence as they believe Chief Sizer is grooming Martinek to be our next chief. Let’s imagine that for a moment. The City of Vancouver’s Police Department loathed him as their chief. There were discrimination lawsuits, allegations of retaliatory behavior by him and overall lack of trust in his ability to do the job.

Here in Portland, things aren’t much different. There are few, if any, line officers who have faith in his ability to do the job he has now let alone be the police chief. If you listen to him tell it, it’s only because he’s an outsider. I find that ironic since Chief [Mark] Kroeker was a complete outsider and had widespread support from the rank and file.

What this Bureau needs is a chief who can communicate; not just to the public, but to the officers as well. Someone who will listen to others and actually hear what they have to say. We need a chief who doesn’t believe he or she is the sole expert in every situation, but rather one who isn’t afraid to collaborate with
others to form a position.

We need a chief who doesn’t hide on the 15th floor and disappear from visibility so often that officers publicly announce they had a “Rosie sighting.”

We need a chief who doesn’t try to white wash “complicated” issues, but rather treats the officers with the respect they have earned doing this job.

We need a chief who will publicly support officers who act in good faith and follow their training.

We need a chief who is willing to meet with the community, not one-on-one, but in an open forum so the community can collectively give input to the chief on what matters to them. We need a chief who publicly acknowledge mistakes and doesn’t try to create revisionist history by later claiming the actions were merely “looking out for the best interests of the officer.”

We don’t have that in Chief Sizer or Assistant Chief Martinek.

READ – Randy Leonard was right: Portland Police Bureau needs new leadership, The Oregonian, April 23, 2010

From the Portland Tribune, April 21, 2010

For years, community activists have pressured the Portland City Council to reduce violent confrontations between the police and the mentally ill.

But while police have been placed under the public spotlight as a result of these confrontations, the mental health system doesn’t get the same level of scrutiny. And some activists say that state and federal privacy laws make it impossible to know whether the mental health system should be held accountable along with law enforcement officers.

“It’s a huge issue,” admits Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland, who has been one of the most vocal police critics. “Right now, we have no way of knowing whether the mentally ill are receiving the best possible treatment.”

Pressure on the council began to mount more than three years ago when James Chasse, a diagnosed schizophrenic, died after fighting with several Portland police officers and Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies. It increased this year when Portland police killed Aaron Campbell, who was suicidal, and Jack Collins, a transient who had cut his throat with a utility knife.

Multnomah County grand juries cleared the police of criminal wrongdoing in all three cases, helping to fuel anger among the activists. But all police records have been released in the three cases. Grand jury transcripts from the Campbell and Collins cases also have been released, allowing the public to judge the actions of the police leading up to the deaths.

But the mental health files in the three cases remain secret – even though police records indicate Chasse and Campbell were treated by mental health professional before their deaths. Collins may also have been in contact with such professionals, too. Because these records are not made public, however, citizens have no way to determine what efforts were made to help the three men lead normal lives, why those efforts failed and what lessons have been learned from their deaths.

The files are restricted because state and federal laws guarantee the privacy of medical records, including those related to mental health and addiction treatment. The privacy laws even apply to internal reviews conducted by public agencies who fund such services.

Renaud says such privacy laws are essential to encourage mentally ill and addicted people to seek treatment without fear of exposure. At the same time, he acknowledges that the restrictions prevent the public from learning whether everything possible is being done to prevent such tragedies.

“There’s no way to measure the effectiveness of the mental health system,” says Renaud, a candidate for City Council who is not running an active campaign.

And the transparency gap between the local law enforcement and mental health systems is growing even larger. In the wake of the three deaths, the council increased public oversight of the Portland Police Bureau. On March 31, it unanimously voted to strengthen the role of the Independent Police Review Division of the City Auditor’s Office in alleged police misconduct cases.

Yet none of these reforms apply to the mental health system.

Laws keep records sealed

Mental health services are provided by a range of licensed professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists and addiction counselors. In Multnomah County, the publicly funded mental health system is overseen by the Mental Health and Addiction Services Division of the Department of County Human Services. It contracts with numerous nonprofit organizations to provide a range of services to those who cannot afford private care. The organizations include Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, Central City Concern and Outside In. The current budget is around $78 million. County-funded programs assessed and served around 45,000 people last year.

The privacy of everyone who receives such services is protected through federal and state laws. The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 includes privacy provisions covering all medical records. Oregon laws also guarantee that alcohol and drug treatment records are private.

“People have the right to expect that their medical records are confidential, and that includes mental health and addiction-treatment records,” says Christina Gardner, the division’s HIPAA compliance officer.

Even law enforcement officials are prevented from accessing a person’s medical records. This means that when police encounter people who appear to be mentally ill, they cannot easily learn whether they are under someone’s care.

In most cases, Gardner says, this is not a serious problem. If police are worried enough, they can contact the Mental Health Call Center operated by the county or Project Respond, a mobile mental health crisis response team operated by Cascadia on behalf of the county.

In both cases, mental health workers will be dispatched to the scene with access to a database of everyone in the county mental health system. If the person is in crisis, the mental health workers are allowed to provide the police general information about the individual’s condition to help resolve the situation.

But this did not happen with Chasse, Campbell or Collins – primarily because the confrontations that led to the deaths escalated too rapidly or unfolded differently than expected.
Numerous contacts with system

Because of the privacy laws, county officials cannot disclose or discuss whether Chasse, Campbell or Collins ever received mental heath or addiction treatment. However, police records released after their deaths indicate that they did.

Chasse died after being chased and fighting with police on Sept, 17, 2006. One month before his death, according to police documents, caseworkers were concerned Chasse had stopped taking his medication and needed to be hospitalized. Two days before his death, a mental health worker and police officer went to see Chasse at his apartment, but he ran away.

Campbell was shot and killed by Portland police after an hourlong standoff on Jan. 29. When police were called to the apartment complex where Campbell was staying, they were told that he was suicidal and had a gun. After his death, Campbell’s girlfriend told police that he had spent time in a “mental hospital” after trying to kill himself a year early. She said Campbell received psychiatric medicine from the hospital but had stopped taking it “because of his ulcers.”

Collins was shot and killed on March 22 after charging an officer with a utility knife. He was a longtime alcoholic who had lived on the streets for years. During that time, Collins was repeatedly cited for drinking in public, suggesting he may have also visited or been taken to the Hooper Detoxification Center, which is operated by Central City Concern.

Eleven days before his death, Collins walked into Central Precinct and asked for mental health treatment. He was directed to Cascadia, but there is no way to know whether he showed up because any record of his visit would be confidential.

“The mental health system is supposed to be accountable internally, but there’s no way for the public to learn the results,” Renaud says.

First call shouldn’t always be to police

In the wake of the controversial police shooting of Aaron Campbell, the Skanner newspaper published an editorial urging its readers not to call 911 if they were in an emergency situation.

“The fact is, we at The Skanner News simply have to warn our readers away from calling the police when they are in a crisis situation,” wrote the paper, which is primarily aimed at African-Americans in North and Northeast Portland.

The Feb. 15 editorial has repeatedly been cited as proof that Portlanders no longer trust the police. But some points in the editorial happen to be directly in line with what authorities recommend. When someone is facing a mental health crisis, there may be a better option – 503-988-4888, the number of the Mental Health Call Center operated by Multnomah County. It also can be reached at 1-800-716-9769.

According to county spokes-person David Austin, the call center is “the hub” of the mental health system. It is operated by professionals who are trained to quickly understand whether the crisis is so serious that the police must respond. If not, the operators can instead dispatch mental health workers to the scene.

“The call center is not as well known as 911, but in many cases involving the mentally ill, it is a better option,” Austin says.

The privacy of all crisis calls to the center are guaranteed by state and federal laws. It received over 45,000 calls in 2009, the most recent full year for which figures are available.