Robert Edward Kadas was born on September 5, 1962 in Portland. He attended Lincoln High School and later Clark College in Vancouver.

Robert died at his home of natural causes, April 23, 2011.

He is survived by his grandmother, Audrey, and by his mother, Sandra, his brother, Ian and sister, Emily.

Robert loved his family and they adored him.

A memorial reception will be held at 1 p.m. on August 27, 2011, at St. Matthew Episcopal Church, 11229 N.E. Prescott, Portland.

To remember Robert, please make a donation to David’s Harp, 11261 N.E. Knott St., Portland, OR 97220.

Ken Robinson on reforming education: ADHD is a “fictitious epidemic.”

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

From OPB.org, April 27, 2011

LISTEN – The Numbers Have Dropped But Meth Still Takes Its Toll

Police were pleased to see arrests for meth possession drop after the state cracked down on pseudoephedrine – a key ingredient in home-made meth. But the anti-meth policy hasn’t completely insulated Oregon from meth abuse.

The graph of Oregon’s methamphetamine arrests draws a downward slide, starting around March of 2007.

That month, 956 people were arrested for either making, selling, or just having meth. The numbers drop lower, and lower, bottoming out in December 2009, at 542.

All this as the state was tightening access to a key ingredient to illegal meth, pseudoephedrine. It now only sells with a doctor’s prescription.

Joe: “I don’t believe that the legislation toward pseudoephedrine was the end-all, but it definitely assisted us in different avenues of the impact of methamphetamine in our communities.”

You’re hearing a man we’ll call Joe. He’s an employee of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and works on undercover drug cases.

He asked us not to use his real name, to protect his safety. Standing across the street from a green house in Salem where his department made its latest large bust, he says there’s some good news.

Joe: “What we don’t see is a lot of the kids suffering in the houses where it’s being manufactured.”

Joe and his colleagues no longer routinely find so-called mom-and-pop labs. But he’s still busy. He and colleagues seized five pounds of meth in the green house earlier this month.

And according to statewide figures, meth arrests started to rise again after 2009. There were just under 700 arrests in February of this year. That’s 100 more arrests than in February of 2010.

Police say dealers are selling more meth from California and Mexico.

While the mom-and-pop labs are largely a thing of the past, the state still struggles to get Mom and Pop themselves off meth. Especially Mom.

Sarah Goforth: “At our residential pregnant women and children’s treatment center, it’s still the primary drug and it’s amazing.”

Sarah Goforth is Director of Recovery and Mental Health Services at Central City Concern in Portland. She says the admission diagnoses at even one Central City facility would suggest the meth supply chain is going strong.

Sarah Goforth “At one point a year or two ago, it was really kind of evening out: heroin, alcohol, marijuana and meth. And I thought OK, we’re finally seeing a downward trend. Today if I called over there, it’s probably 75 percent meth, and they’re women”

It’s difficult to track who’s using meth in Oregon with precision. Treatment centers can’t afford to place everyone who wants help in residential or outpatient programs. So no reliable record exists of people who wanted help.

In 2010, the last year for which the Department of Human Services published records, meth was the third most common drug reported as the reason for seeking addiction treatment.

Alcohol and marijuana were first and second, respectively.

Goforth has a theory about why meth addiction has stayed strong, even amid the ups and downs of the economy.

Sarah Goforth: “I’m always leery when I do these interviews because I know there are scientists who would refute this, but I just know from my many years of doing this work. Here you are, you’re a young mom, you start using meth, and you can get stuff done, you can clean the house and ‘Oooo, look at this I’m losing weight!’ And you begin to depend on that level of energy.”

Goforth says meth is a way for women who use it to get by, until the day when it doesn’t work, and the user needs more. She calls meth one of the tougher addictions to break.

One former meth user in recovery can attest to that.

Amber Parke: “It’s not just the meth. It’s the gambling, it’s the crime, it’s the criminality, and all that.”

Amber Parke is a mom and a masters’ student at Portland State. She holds down a job at Portland Community College, where she was a decorated undergraduate.

Many of her classmates didn’t know she’d overcome years of drugs, including meth. She started around 13, even using meth with her mother sometimes.

While her life descended into a fog of petty crimes to fund her addiction, Parke says she ultimately turned things around through 12-step meetings.

Amber Parke: “I remember some of those people sitting in the meetings, and some of the stuff that they talked about that I thought they were all lying about – about how their lives had gotten so much better. It wasn’t really one thing they’d said, it was more the impression of, like, I knew it had worked for somebody. I decided I was going to get clean.”

The kind of recovery Parke is talking about hinges on treatment. And with the state looking at budget cuts this year, it’s not clear how much money there will be to fund state treatment programs.

Statement by: Lane County Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Advisory Council

Eugene Police Officer Chris Kilcullen

According to media reports, the individual who has confessed to shooting Officer Kilcullen has a long mental health history.

READ - Landlord tells of murder suspect’s odd behavior, Eugene Register Guard
READ – Eugene, Ore., police chief: Officer fatally shot while chasing fleeing motorist, Washington Post
READ – Police: Suspect confessed, Eugene Register Guard
READ – In death, lessons for our lives, By Bob Welch Register-Guard columnist
READ – ‘Our department is grieving, along with his family’, KATU.com
READ – Community channels grief toward honors, Eugene Register Guard
READ – UO student wants to make stretch of highway where officer was killed a memorial, Daily Reporter

While we do not have all the facts about this incident, we are united in condemning this horrible act.

We also would like to remind the community of the leadership by Officer Kilcullen in the field of mental health and policing. We need to continue Officer Kilcullen’s legacy. Several of our council members have had personal interactions with Officer Kilcullen.

In today’s meeting, they commented about Officer Kilcullen:

• “Remarkably honest and nice person…”
• “His easy going manner, sense of humor and fun, and respect.”
• “Genuinely caring about all people from all walks of life, children, youth, psychiatric diagnoses.”
• “Interested in and supportive of people with mental health issues.”

We caution our community against a backlash that discriminates against those of us who are diagnosed with a psychiatric disability. The vast majority of us are peaceful citizens with no tendency toward violence. We encourage our community to reach out and include the perspectives of individuals and groups representing mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors.

Too often, there is silence about mental health issues and recovery until a violent incident.

Let’s start and maintain a dialogue about mental health issues, such as the local successful Opal Network which has met quarterly for four years.

We also need to remind the community, that the US federal mental health agency SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) issued a consensus statement signed by more than three dozen lawyers, advocates, consumers/survivors, and mental health professionals that reads in part:

“The results of several recent large-scale research projects conclude that only a weak association between mental disorders and violence exists in the community. Serious violence by people with major mental disorders appears concentrated in a small fraction of the total number, and especially in those who use alcohol and other drugs.” (Monhan, J. and Arnold, J., 1996)

For more information about this statement contact Oregon Consumer/ Survivor Coalition at oregon.united@gmail.com or phone 541-345-9106.

Wayne Nelson has been in Coquille for more than 60 years. As a barber he meets a lot of people. He contends that drugs and idle hands are the main causes of the recent increase in crime. When people are working hard all day, they’re too tired to commit crimes, he said.

A Coquille resident for 64 years, Wayne Nelson said he has watched as the county slowly went to pot – literally – as he cut hair in his barber shop.

“They’ve always had crime around here, but it has picked up in the last 10 years,” Nelson said.

“I think it’s the drugs.”

Nelson said drug use began seeping into the community in the ’70s and has slowly escalated ever since. And with heavier drug use came altered mindsets.

“Idle minds are the devil’s workshop, my Granddaddy always used to say,” Nelson said smiling. Then this tone turned more serious.

“It’s all in the mindset,” he said.

“If people don’t respect themselves, they won’t respect others.”

Drugs beget violence

Furthermore, drug use leads to any number of rash or irrational actions, some violent and some not, Nelson thinks. Even when an addict is not under the influence, drug use can define their existence as they seek their next fix.

Nelson believes parents are partly to blame. Likewise, the steady increase in the drug use in the community.

Parents don’t always raise their children with good values and a work ethic, he said. Children grow up to adopt their parents’ bad behavior, sometimes drug use and violence. And as generations turn over, the situation escalates.

The result in Coos County: higher rates of violent crime.

“People like to blame all the crime around here on the economy,” Nelson said.

“The economy doesn’t have anything to do with it. A person would kill their own grandmother to get these drugs. It makes them crazy.”

OUR COMMENT – This is the lamest news story we’ve ever read.

From the Salem Statesman Journal, April 25, 2011

Oregon State Hospital has been in the crosshairs of federal civil-rights investigators since mid-2006, and there appears to be no end in sight to the long-running inquiry.

From Library of Dust, but David Maisel

The first visit occurred in February when lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice met at the state hospital with a number of patients to hear their concerns and complaints.

Patients vented frustration about long stints of hospitalization and restrictive release practices that keep patients cooped up on psychiatric wards after therapists have found them fit to be released.

During the second trip to Salem, visitors from the U.S. DOJ spent three days, April 6-8, conducting interviews with at least 10 state mental health administrators. The talks took place in a conference room at the Commerce Building.

State officials briefed the federal contingent on various mental-health programs, state hospital release practices and funding issues that loom as the state faces a $3.5 billion shortfall in its budget for 2011-13.

Ten administrators were listed on a roster of scheduled participants for the three-day series of interviews. Among them: Richard Harris, director of the Addictions and Mental Health Division; Mary Claire Buckley, executive director of the Psychiatric Security Review Board; and Nena Strickland, deputy superintendent of the state hospital.

Heading up the federal team was Robert Koch, a trial attorney for the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. DOJ.

The Statesman Journal obtained back-and-forth correspondence between state and federal lawyers through a public records request filed with the Oregon Department of Justice. The email traffic stretches from January through the middle of last week.

Much of the correspondence focused on scheduling matters and other arrangements for the two recent visits.

Other exchanges pointed to a potential meeting between Gov. John Kitzhaber and Thomas Perez, head of the federal Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

State and federal lawyers expressed mutual interest in setting up such a meeting, potentially opening up a new, top-level line of communication in the protracted investigation.

Former Gov. Ted Kulongoski previously spurned an invitation for a face-to-face meeting with federal officials investigating OSH.

As it stands, no date has been set for a meeting between Kitzhaber and Perez.

“We’ve always been open to a meeting, but we continue to discuss when it should occur,” Tony Green, a spokesman for Attorney General John Kroger, said last week in an email to the newspaper.

The state has placed a pre-condition on any meeting between Kitzhaber and Perez, as outlined Wednesday in an email sent to the feds by John Dunbar, the attorney in charge of the Special Litigation Unit of the Oregon Justice Department.

Dunbar wrote: “I have checked further about a meeting between Tom Perez and Governor Kitzhaber. We think it would be best to hold the meeting after we learn more about USDOJ’s specific concerns and any findings … .

“Of course, we believe that given what USDOJ learned about during its most recent visit, including the AMHI program (Adult Mental Health Initiative), the Oregon Health Plan, the child wraparound program, and other Oregon programs, USDOJ should not issue findings. In any event, we look forward to hearing from USDOJ about follow-up information.”

This June will mark the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the federal investigation of the state hospital.

In 2008, the feds threatened legal action if Oregon did not fix numerous defects in patient care and hospital conditions. The state responded by launching new treatment programs, hiring hundreds of new hospital employees and moving forward with construction of a new 620-bed, $280 million replacement hospital in central Salem.

Despite reform-minded efforts, the federal Justice Department put the state on notice in November that it was widening the investigation, digging into concerns beyond patient care and hospital conditions.

The expanded investigation has been scrutinizing how long patients stay at OSH, the availability of mental health services for people coming out of the hospital and those at risk of being institutionalized, and whether the state is complying with federal law, which requires that government dollars support the most appropriate care for people with disabilities in the least restrictive settings.

Mental health advocates maintain that Oregon spends too much on hospitalization for people with mental illnesses and not enough on community programs.

Legislative action will occur soon on budget cuts that loom for the state hospital and other parts of the mental health system. Kitzhaber’s proposed budget for 2011-13 called for $36 million worth of general fund spending cuts at OSH. Mental health administrators are putting together a package of specific cuts for upcoming review by the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.

From the Salem Statesman Journal, April 24, 2011

Discharges of patients could be swifter if determined by hospital instead of board

A bill that could speed up sluggish release practices at the Oregon State Hospital is moving forward in the Legislature, boosting the hopes of patients at the Salem psychiatric facility.

Senate Bill 420 proposes to give the hospital rather than the state Psychiatric Security Review Board authority to say when a patient is ready for release from the hospital’s forensic program.

READ – Oregon Senate Bill 420, Calculates maximum period of jurisdiction of Psychiatric Security Review Board over person found guilty except for insanity of offense based on sentence person would have received had person been convicted of crime.

Patients and mental-health advocates say the legislation is needed because the PSRB takes a strict approach to releasing patients, resulting in excessively long and costly stints of hospital care.

Faced with an ongoing federal investigation of the state hospital and a $3.5 billion budget shortfall in 2011-13, Oregon can’t afford to continue warehousing patients, mental-health advocates say.

“In this fiscal environment, we can’t continue to shovel money into things that really don’t make sense,” said Robert Joondeph, executive director of Disability Rights Oregon.

The forensic program houses more than 400 patients, and it costs taxpayers about $200,000 a year for each. Community-based housing and mental health supports are much less expensive.

All too often, though, patients are kept inside the hospital after therapists have deemed them ready to leave, according to patient activists and mental health advocates.

The PSRB has become a frequent target of criticism and complaints.

“There are a lot of people locked up in the hospital that do not need to be here, and the reason they are here is due to the board and its stringent and overly cautious and conservative practices,” patient Matthew Kirby said last week. “Right now, the hospital feels like a prison. It feels like we are being warehoused.”

Kirby, who testified in favor of SB 420 at a legislative hearing on Monday, described the legislation as a much-needed reform.

“420 addresses the hospital’s back-door issues, so that people do not languish in an institution far longer than they need to,” he told the Statesman Journal. “In short, it places the determination of treatment needs in the hands of the doctors that work with us on a daily basis, as opposed to some alien body that listens to us for 20 minutes and doesn’t have to take our treatment needs into consideration.”

Senate Bill 420 was negotiated by a team that included the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, representatives of the district attorneys association, the governor’s office and legislators.

The bill now awaits action by the Legislature’s budget-writing committee after clearing the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

“What this bill is supposed to do is give us more efficiency in our mental health facilities,” said Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This is also ensuring that the limited bed space we have is being used most appropriately for those in need of those services.”

Currently, the state hospital houses more than 400 forensic patients who were committed to OSH because they were judged guilty of crimes but insane at the time. Instead of doing time in state prisons or county jails, they were sent to the hospital for mental health treatment.

Under the current system, the PSRB controls patients’ discharge dates. The governor-appointed panel also monitors more than 300 former patients living in Oregon communities after being conditionally released from the state hospital.

Senate Bill 420 proposes to give the hospital the final say on when a patient is fit for release. The PSRB would continue to monitor the person after release.

The board also would retain its authority to order a person back to the state hospital for violations of release conditions, such as failing to take medication, drinking or drug use and skipping mental-health appointments. A person also can be returned to the hospital for stabilizing treatment if his or her mental-health condition deteriorates.

Since the PSRB was created in 1978 to provide added safeguards to the release process, fewer than two percent of conditionally released patients have committed new crimes.

Defenders of the board say that it has performed its primary mission, as set forth by state law, which is to protect public safety.

But mental health advocacy groups have persistently criticized the board’s strict stance on releasing patients.

“The feeling is that the PSRB has been very, very tight in terms of those decisions,” Joondeph said. “More to the point, the PSRB has not had any incentive to get people out of the hospital that don’t need to be there. It’s not their job to do that, so we spend a lot of money to keep certain people in there, even though the doctors, nurses and psychologists who evaluate them have decided they don’t need to be at that level of service. We essentially ask the state hospital to be a jail or a warehouse or a holding place for certain people, and we’re paying top dollar to keep them there.”

Shifting release authority to the hospital makes sense for economic, therapeutic and management reasons, Joondeph said.

“It’s one of a number of ideas kicked around about how to give the hospital more control over its beds,” he said. “We have been supportive of the idea as a way to do that, in order to make sure the right people are in the right place at the right time.”

The proposed legislation comes as federal investigators are scrutinizing length of patient stays as part of an ongoing civil rights investigation of the psychiatric facility.

The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division began investigating patient care and hospital conditions in June 2006. The investigation later expanded to include length of patient stays and community-based services and supports for people coming out of the hospital, as well as those at risk of being institutionalized.

Federal lawyers recently spent three days in Salem, April 6-8, conducting a series of interviews with state mental health administrators.

The federal Justice Department has not made any public statement about when the investigation might end or whether a lawsuit will be filed against the state for alleged violations of patients rights.

From Wildflowers Movement blog, by Jenny Westberg

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” George Orwell probably wasn’t thinking about health conditions when he wrote this, but that’s one of the ways it’s played out.

In physical health, every serious illness is difficult. Every life-threatening crisis is terrifying. Every survivor is brave.

Some equally difficult life-and-death struggles, however, have a little more cachet.  Some survivors are more celebrated for survival.

See my pink ribbon? That’s right, I’m heading to the breast cancer fun run.

Oh, did I sound flip? Actually, I consider it unimaginably loathsome to minimize, in any way, any person’s struggle with breast cancer.

But right now, my sister is making an effort against a form of cancer that will never get a parade.

Why is this? Every person going through cancer has a terrible journey, and everyone who survives should be celebrated.

Of course, some cancers have names people don’t like to say.  “Breast” is nicer than “rectum.” It’s more interesting than “skin,” and certainly sexier than “bladder.” Breast cancer, unlike lung cancer, doesn’t cause anyone to think “it was all your own stupid fault.” So it’s easier to come forward, to say you have this. It’s likelier you’ll find support.

Breast cancer, compared to some other cancers, is more likely to be detected at an early stage. Compared to some cancers, there are more effective treatments. And compared to some, overall, it might even be more survivable.

It’s a horrible thing. It’s not more or less horrible than any other horrible thing. Surviving it is no more wonderful.

Yet – see my pink ribbon?

A crisis is a crisis is a crisis.

But disease vs. disease one-upmanship really gets down and dirty in the area of mental health.

My friend has told me, in a reassuring way, “I don’t think you have schizophrenia at all. I think you’re really bipolar.” Why is that preferable?

Someone told me about her time in the state hospital, making sure I knew that, unlike so many others, she never, never cut on herself. Finally I asked if she really looked down on this as much as it sounded. There was a rush of wind, followed by a great noise of backpedaling. Okay. But I’ll hear this again.

When proposed revisions to the DSM-5 were announced, many “Aspies” loudly objected to being called “autistic.” Seriously?

But it gets even sillier.

Some of these same people, if pressed, would agree that, fundamentally, all these terms – “bipolar,” “Asperger’s,” everything -  are meaningless labels. They would agree there’s no basis in science or sense; that they are attached by fancy or the phase of the moon; and that their only clear merit is providing better, more effective ways to demean and destroy.

Random example from cyberspace: “The DSM-5 proposal will do Aspies a disservice, not a favor, because it will only exacerbate the damage that labels do.”

How’s that again?

You want this particular nonsense word, not the other nonsense word?

My label is better than yours?

You’re not better than me if I cut myself, while you only make “real” suicide attempts. I’m not worse than you if I hear voices and you never have.  I’m not somehow superior because the DSM says I have a better prognosis. I’m not tragic or gifted if you give me a list of great people who supposedly have similar experiences.  And no matter what “common knowledge” says, no matter what I go through, I’m never a lost cause.

Folks, in this barn we’re all just animals.