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General Contents 9-1-1 Mental Health Calls to Soon Go to Counselors Not Cops New $20 Million Central City Concern Building Opens

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General Contents 9-1-1 Mental Health Calls to Soon Go to Counselors Not Cops New $20 Million Central City Concern Building Opens December 2011 Eyes & Ears Page 1 Formerly EYES & EARS Renaissance Times December 2011 A Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Newsletter Volume 7 Issue 12 Mailing Address: 2415 SE 43rd Avenue Portland Oregon, 97206 [email protected] New $20 million Central City Concern 9-1-1 mental health calls to soon go to building opens in Old Town counselors not cops Molly Hottle, The Oregonian, December 14, 2011 From KGW.com, December 2, 2011 After 13 months of construction, Central City Portland Police will soon respond to fewer 9-1- Concern opened a new $20 million building this 1 calls involving mental health issues. week to serve homeless and impoverished people Sometime after the first of the year, many of with mental health issues. those calls will be transferred to Multnomah Called The Old Town Recovery Center, the County’s Mental Health call center. new building is located at Northwest Broadway and The center is staffed around the clock with West Burnside Street, and will replace Central City professional mental health counselors. The hope is Concern’s 12th Avenue Recovery Center. It updates that people suffering mental health issues will get the and expands the space for the recovery center, which help they need and not escalate their behavior simply treats people with mental illness using a variety of because a police officer shows up at their home. services including exams by medical doctors and A number of crisis calls end up with the police acupuncture. who then respond to check on the caller. Police chief The new recovery center has allowed Central Mike Reese says that’s not always a good thing. City Concern to hire 12 people, and the expanded “Simply having someone in uniform can space will bring in an additional 2,000 new patients exacerbate these problems. And not that our officers over the next 18 months, said the agency’s director don’t do amazing work in these circumstances, but Ed Blackburn. just the appearance of a uniform can set some people Kathleen Roy, program manager of the off,” Reese said. recovery center, said when the first handful of clients Mental health advocates point to the shooting of got a look at the new building, they were “ecstatic.” Aaron Campbell when arguing for the change in “No one has this amount of space for the kind police response. Nearly two years ago, a Portland of work we’re doing,” Roy said. police officer shot Campbell in the back believing he Construction on the new building began in was armed and reaching for his gun. He was not. November 2010,after the Burger King, considered Multnomah County Mental Health Association (Continued on next page) spokesman Jason Renaud mentions the shooting while talking about the change. (Continued on next page) Meeting the mental health needs of our jail population - Page 3 Oregon Health Policy Board races to draft details for transforming health care- Page 4 General Contents Joint Healthcare Committee to Accept Public Testimony on Health Insurance Reforms - Page 5 Resources 7-16 Progress Without Pepper Spray - Page 5 Coming events 17 Focus more to ease stress - Page 6 Job opportunities 18-20 Rethinking Psychiatry 2012 Winter Film Festival, Spirituality and Mental Health Solstice Ceremony Resource List 18-21 Page 17 Page 2 Eyes & Ears December 2011 New $20 million Central City Concern Central City Concern will build up, adding an building opens in Old Town additional eight floors, said Kathy Pape, agency (Continued from front page) spokeswoman. “We heard both from the city and community,” an eyesore by many, that stood on the lot was Pape said. “Organizations said that this location is demolished. Central City Concern received a nearly such a high profile spot, they really wanted us to $9 million federal grant from the American Recovery serve a big capacity.” and Reinvestment Act to build the three-floor Blackburn hopes to begin adding to the structure, which is connected by hallways to the Old building in the next five years, possibly creating Town Clinic, an operation also owned by the apartments where clients can reside. nonprofit. An open house to give the public a look at the Old The Old Town Clinic provides medical services Town Recovery Center will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. to poor people, and Roy said connecting the two on Thursday, Dec. 15 at the center, 33 N.W. buildings alleviates fears among patients who aren’t Broadway. comfortable traveling to separate buildings for different services. Among the attributes of the new building are its 9-1-1 mental health calls to soon go to environmentally friendly qualities, including counselors not cops rainwater collection, energy efficient lighting and (Continued from front page) large windows to bring in natural light, among a host of others. Blackburn said the agency expects the “And if Aaron Campbell’s mother in law had building to achieve a LEED Gold rating. had the opportunity to call the crisis line instead of Inside the building are a number of exam rooms calling 9-1-1, Aaron’s crisis which was pretty for patients and medical staff, meeting rooms and normal, he was intoxicated and distressed and offices, and large rooms to be used for education of despondent, could have been averted,” Renaud said. the interns and medical residents that spend time at “He didn’t need to be shot, I think that’s the the center and clinic. consensus now. I think a social worker could have A space called the Living Room is on the first done a better job,” he said. floor and will give clients room to eat meals, do After the change in dispatch rules, 9-1-1 calls activities and spend time together. On the second involving mental health will go to the counselors, not floor is a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows the police. Police chief Reese said the exception will and wood floors is the Movement Room, a place be situations where people threaten to harm where yoga classes and physical therapy sessions themselves or others and have the means to carry out will take place. the threat. And on the third floor is a lot of empty space. Heeseung Kang, the supervisor of the mental That’s because Blackburn has some impending plans health call center says the change is good for for it: create a place where poor people can get everyone. dental work done. “I think we are the best equipped to be able to “We have no dental for poor people downtown engage that caller you know, show them the empathy, or even close-in,” Blackburn said recently as he the hearing you know feeling understood that they’re stood in an empty room on the third floor. “This will really longing for and then help them get wrapped up all be converted to dental.” with the services, the help, the support that they The program is still in the works, but Blackburn need,” Kang said. said the dental program would be run by Multnomah There is no firm start date, but soon people County and would be open to the community. If struggling with mental health in Multnomah County discussions go as planned, it could be open to will talk to counselors not cops. That has mental patients by August 2012. health advocates like Jason Renaud thrilled. Like with the dental services, the new Old “It’s a great idea and its great the city and Town Recovery Center is equipped for extensive county can work together to make this happen,” he additions. It was built with the idea that someday, said. December 2011 Eyes & Ears Page 3 Meeting the mental health needs of our jail Mental Health Association of Portland population Recent Website Postings as of Dec. 14th www.seasidesignal.com, December 7, 2011 www.mentalhealthportland.org Guest Column By Richard Harris The Mental Health Association of Portland is SALEM - Right now, our state is engaged in an a great resource for current news on mental important discussion about how to provide treatment health issues. Go to their site and check them out! for those suffering from mental illness, especially Also includes a link to their Facebook site. those who may have committed a crime. The goal is to provide the right care at the right time in the right Oregon proposes mental health treatment home place. Before Oregonians move forward, we must notification to local councils, not neighbors have a clear understanding of the issue. Officials to stop lodging juveniles in Oregon prison To help meet their needs and the needs of local communities, the state's Addictions and Mental It’s all about peer-to-peer support Health Division is studying the scope of mental Methadone becoming a big killer illness in our county jail population. We are looking OSH staff improve patient care, save money at the number of people in jail with mental illness as well as the severity and type. We know that people Meeting the mental health needs of our jail face everything from depression to psychosis, and population there are often issues of substance abuse but we need Oregon sees drop in the number of foster kids who solid data. get psychiatric drug prescriptions Once we have that information, workgroups of mental health consumers, providers and other A new take on distress calls stakeholders will make recommendations to the legislature on the best way to meet the mental health IMPACT YOUR FUTURE needs of our jail population. There are many successful interventions already in place in some MHASD Adult Consumer/Family/ parts of the state that we can learn from, such as crisis centers and mental health courts, that divert Advocate Input Session people away from jails and into the appropriate services.
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