PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A consultant hired as part of a legal settlement has released recommendations for the Oregon State Hospital to at least temporarily ease a crisis of slow admissions and overwhelmed capacity.
Dr. Debra Pinals, a behavioral health director from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, delivered her first of two reports this week, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Pinals was hired to evaluate the state-run psychiatric hospital’s admissions problems as part of its ongoing legal dispute with the advocacy group Disability Rights Oregon, which says the hospital has failed to quickly admit patients who have been found unable to appear in court on their own defense. Those patients, Disability Rights Oregon has said, are languishing in jail without needed mental health services in violation of their civil rights.
Pinals talked to more than 20 state hospital administrators, as well as six patients.
The 20-page report recommends making more efforts to discharge or avoid the admission of patients who don’t need hospital-level care; using space at the hospital’s recently opened Junction City unit to house newly-admitted patients; and tracking patient admissions through a uniform data system.
A second report from Pinals, recommending long-term fixes, is due April 29.
The hospital, she said, should examine why community health services unnecessarily send people to the hospital and push for legislation that requires better community-based mental health treatment services in each county.
The data system she recommended would include a dashboard detailing the number of patients waiting for admission, their legal status and how long they’ve been waiting.
A state hospital representative did not respond to questions from the newspaper about when administrators would make the recommended changes.
K.C. Lewis, Disability Rights Oregon’s managing attorney, said the report was an important first step to bring the hospital into compliance with a 2002 court order that mandates timely admissions for patients found to be unable to participate in their own defense.
“The problems at the state hospital are a symptom of our society’s overreliance on the criminal justice system to deal with people with mental illness,” Lewis said. “These recommendations are an excellent starting place, but solving this problem in the long-term is going to require policymakers who are willing to have difficult conversations and make bold choices about what kind of system we want to have.”
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A consultant hired as part of a legal settlement has released recommendations for the Oregon State Hospital to at least temporarily ease a crisis of slow admissions and overwhelmed capacity. Dr. Debra Pinals, a behavioral health director from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, delivered her first of two reports this week, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Pinals was hired to evaluate the state-run psychiatric hospital’s admissions problems as part of its ongoing legal dispute with the advocacy group Disability Rights Oregon, which says the hospital has failed to quickly admit patients who have been found unable to appear in court on their own defense. Those patients, Disability Rights Oregon has said, are languishing in jail without needed mental health services in violation of their civil rights.Pinals talked to more than 20 state hospital administrators, as well as six patients.The 20-page report recommends making more efforts to discharge or avoid the admission of patients who don’t need hospital-level care; using space at the hospital’s recently opened Junction City unit to house newly-admitted patients; and tracking patient admissions through a uniform data system.A second report from Pinals, recommending long-term fixes, is due April 29.The hospital, she said, should examine why community health services unnecessarily send people to the hospital and push for legislation that requires better community-based mental health treatment services in each county.The data system she recommended would include a dashboard detailing the number of patients waiting for admission, their legal status and how long they’ve been waiting.A state hospital representative did not respond to questions from the newspaper about when administrators would make the recommended changes.K.C. Lewis, Disability Rights Oregon’s managing attorney, said the report was an important first step to bring the hospital into compliance with a 2002 court order that mandates timely admissions for patients found to be unable to participate in their own defense.“The problems at the state hospital are a symptom of our society’s overreliance on the criminal justice system to deal with people with mental illness,” Lewis said. “These recommendations are an excellent starting place, but solving this problem in the long-term is going to require policymakers who are willing to have difficult conversations and make bold choices about what kind of system we want to have.”