Mental Health Association of Portland – Oregon's impartial & Independent advocate
By Jenny Westberg, guest column in The Oregonian, May 14, 2010 In her column this week, The Oregonian’s Anna Griffin notes that any time James P. Chasse Jr.‘s name is in the news, she gets the same phone call: “Why won’t this story go away? It’s been four years. He was nobody. Why do you […]
Jack Dale Collins – Feb. 20, 1952 – March 22, 2010 Jack Dale Collins, 58, died after being shot by a Portland police officer. The officer involved in his death responded to ‘a call of an unwanted person at the Hoyt Arboretum who was yelling at people.’ The crime scene diagram shows an x-acto knife […]
According to reporting in the May 8 The Oregonian newspaper, staffers in the office of the Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk plan to cease representing persons brought to mental health court or civil commitment proceedings if the District Attorney’s budget is reduced, as planned by interim county chair Jeff Cogen. Cogen is running for […]
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. […]
By Casadi Marino, LCSW, board member, Mental Health America of Oregon. Also published in The Oregonian. I have been waiting for another man to die. I’ve asked what could be done to prevent another loss. I can look to what has taken place so far but I don’t find any answers. A man with schizophrenia […]
From the Portland Mercury, April 15, 2010 Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman is under fire from mental health advocates for releasing a “disappointing” report, which intends to improve police interactions with people suffering from mental illness. The report, issued at a city hall press conference last week, made the following recommendations for immediate action: a trial […]
Editorial column by Matt Davis, Portland Mercury, April 15, 2010 Oh, black bloc protesters. How I pity you. Once again last Thursday evening, April 8, you staged a woefully limp protest at the corner of NW 13th and Everett, the street corner where James Chasse Jr. was beaten by Portland cops in 2006. This followed […]
By Bob Joondeph, Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon In this essay, Bob is commenting on former Oregonian editor Jack Hart’s recent article, Insane choices: We, not the police, are responsible for the consequences of how we deal with homeless mentally ill, on the police shooting death of Jack Collins in the Hoyt Arboretum. We […]
Cutting. Burning. Hitting yourself. Pulling your hair out. Approximately 2 million people in the U.S. engage in self-harm, and sometimes, they wind up dead. While many people think the behavior is limited to adolescent girls, it happens with both genders, and it can happen at any age. Celebrities who have admitted to self-harm include Fiona […]
Here some of our suggestions to improve trust and respect between the Portland police and persons with a diagnosis of mental illness and / or addiction from over the past year. Testimony at City Council – November 2009 Op Ed in The Oregonian – November 2009 Take the police out of crisis intervention business – […]
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