Cinching up the Safety

QBs make last stand in state Civil W ar g ame h as favored M ariota, not M annion — SEE SPORTS, B12 PortlandTHURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2014 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY TribunePAPER • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY Busy 82nd Avenue could get face-lift thanks to ODOT, city S treet’s dang erous long a haven for prosti- the top 5 percent most city of Portland. tutes, fast-food joints, More online dangerous ones in the “There’s interest on both intersec tions mig h t b e unsightly used-car Stuck in state. sides at looking at a potential lots, and porn shops. traffi c? Tell us Then ODOT will take jurisdictional transfer,” says altered as part of plan But 82nd Avenue is what you think a big-picture look at a Mike Mason, a senior project starting to get more at portland tribune. 7.3-mile stretch of 82nd manager for ODOT who is com By STEVE LAW love from the state. Avenue to plot more im- leading the one-year study. “Ul- The Tribune Oregon’s Depart- provements between timately, we want to see 82nd ment of Transportation just an- Northeast Killingsworth Street safer and maybe more attrac- When you think of a Port- nounced it will spend $5 million and Southeast Johnson Creek tive to walk along and go to.” land street known as an eye- to improve pedestrian and mo- Boulevard. The study also will As a state transportation sore, which one comes to torist safety at fi ve key inter- consider whether it makes agency managing a network of TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE mind? sections on 82nd in Southeast sense for ODOT to hand con- Pedestrians and cars navigate the busy intersection at Southeast 82nd For many, it’s 82nd Avenue, Portland — all ranking among trol of the state highway to the See 82ND AVENUE / Page 10 Avenue and Division Street. ■ R eg ional psy c h iatric c enter mig h t offer c risis relief to polic e, E R s COPS RARELY USE EXISTING FACILITY Polic e say c ostly 1 6 - b ed c enter c an’t h andle ty pic al ac ute mental h ealth c ases By PETER KORN The Tribune Last week, Portland police offi cer Brad Yakots took a call from dispatch — a man who claimed to be high on mushrooms, clearly agitated, possibly suicidal, who said he wanted to jump in front of a MAX train. Yakots hurried to the scene and found the man, William, on the sidewalk in front of a homeless shelter. STATE OF MENTAL HEALTH Yakots, a member of the police enhanced crisis team, with a relaxed manner and a penchant for easy conversation, says he ad- dressed William by his fi rst name and asked if he was still having homicidal or CINCHING UP suicidal thoughts. William said he was. Yakots asked how he could help. William said he needed his psychiatric medications refi lled but he didn’t want to be taken any- where in an ambulance. THE SAFETY NET Remarkably, according to Yakots, William said, “I don’t want to charge the county Portland police offi cers regularly transport people in psychiatric crisis to hospital emergency departments. A proposed new facility would relieve money. I’ll ride in your police car.” Which is them of that duty. Here, Portland Police offi cers Jonathan Richardson, middle, and Brad Yakots check in with a homeless man in Old Town. precisely what he did. Yakots took William to Legacy Emanuel’s emergency department, pressing a button on his hand-held computer to alert Legacy staff that he was Dr. Lyle Jobe Dr. Farentinos, director of be- there the moment he arrived. STORY BY meets with a havioral health at Legacy For the next hour and a half, Yakots re- PETER KORN patient at the Health, and Scherba, Oregon mained at Legacy’s emergency department Multnomah Health & Science University’s di- waiting room, most of the time sitting be- PHOTOS BY County Crisis rector of behavioral health, have side William, trying to keep the conversa- JAIME VALDEZ Assessment and been quietly holding talks across tion light. Once a psychiatrist became avail- Treatment Multnomah County to build sup- able and signed the paperwork transferring Center. It was port for a facility they are calling William’s care, Yakots returned to his pa- intended as a the psychiatric hospital and re- trol, noting that he had spent an hour and a hris Farentinos and Cin- drop-off center gional psychiatric emergency half waiting at the hospital. He felt lucky. dy Scherba think they for police, but it service. The key to solving what The majority of Yakots’ mental health cas- might have the solution isn’t used that has been such an intractable es are involuntary, someone acting out a to one of the city’s most problem? Billing, apparently. psychosis who needs to be brought to an C way. vexing problems: fi nding a place “We know that to improve emergency department in handcuffs. With for people experiencing psychi- people they encounter who are The city’s hospitals want a mental health care for psychiat- those cases, Yakots says he’s typically atric emergencies to go or be suicidal, homicidal or unable to drop-off center, too, because po- ric patients we need to look at sitting around the waiting room up to three taken to by police. If they’re cope with daily living because of lice currently take their mental how we can decriminalize the hours. right, they could improve care mental health crises. health emergency cases to hos- mental health treatment we pro- As a member of the police crisis team, for thousands of Portland resi- Mental health advocacy orga- pital emergency departments. vide,” Scherba says. Yakots has received special training to help dents going through crises and nizations say the establishment The emergency departments fi ll The proposed new facility him deal with people experiencing psychi- satisfy a lot of key political play- of such a place is the single most up with costly psychiatric pa- even has a designated, already- atric emergencies. But a lot of patrol offi - ers at the same time. important line item in the city’s tients who sometimes wait constructed site that currently cers, he says, anxious to get to other calls, Police say they are desperate settlement with the U.S. Depart- around for days because the hos- houses the Portland campus of will immediately call for an ambulance for for a place they can take the ment of Justice over police treat- pitals are short of psychiatric steadily increasing number of ment of the mentally ill. beds. See PSYCHIATRIC / Page 2 See COPS / Page 3 Oregon beer, brewers get spotlight that Bend’s 10 Barrel been weighing in. On his W riter Y aeg er look s at Brewing had been More online blog, brianyaeger.com, impac t of 1 0 B arrel’s bought by Anheuser- Tell what you he writes that whether Busch. think about people cry “sellouts” sale on c raft b rewing Here in the craft brew Portland’s beer and boycott the compa- Portland blogger capital of the world, scene at portland ny, or fall into the “good Brian Yaeger will By JENNIFER ANDERSON (Portland is No. 1 per tribune.com for them” camp and con- sign books and The Tribune capita and Bend is a tinue to buy their beer, lead a pub crawl close second), the indus- “one thing is clear: Ore- Dec. 5 to What is local? What is craft? try is under the microscope as gon beer will never be the same celebrate the When is beer just beer, and if people look inward to make sense again.” release of his it’s good, why does it matter of it all. By the end of the year, when “ Oregon who makes it? Portland beer writer Brian the acquisition is complete, 10 Breweries” Those are questions brewers, Yaeger, who’ll release his latest Barrel Brewing — opening its book. beer geeks and the public are book, “Oregon Breweries,” on COURTESY OF asking this month as news broke Dec. 1, is one of those who’ve See BEER / Page 7 BRIAN YAEGER “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune deliver balanced news that refl ects the MUSIC WRITER BRAVES L.A. stories of our communities. Thank you — SEE LIFE, PAGE B1 for reading our newspapers.” Inside — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, November 27, 2014 Psychiatric: Drop-off, walk-in site sought ■ From page 1 the Oregon State Hospital in the Lloyd District. The state is vacat- ing the former Holladay Park Hospital and transferring its functions to a new state psychiatric hospital being built in Junc- tion City. Scherba and F arentinos are pitching a place where people experiencing mental health emergencies can fi nd sanctuary while being observed. That’s how John George Psychiatric Hospital in Alameda County, Ca- lif., works and that’s the idea, called the Alameda Model, that Scherba and F arentinos want to adopt here in Portland. At John George, about eight in 10 of the patients in crisis brought in by police or who walk in on their own end up leaving the facility in under 24 hours. Psychiatric staff assess them within 15 minutes of arrival and can get them started on medica- tion if needed. Then, most of their time is spent under obser- vation in an open room with re- cliners where they basically calm down with few restraints.

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