EDITORIAL: Mental health funding should be a priority

May 10--In January, the League of Oregon Cities released its annual State of the Cities report. Among its key findings: Oregon's mental health system is inadequate to address the needs of people in crisis. This is hardly news, but the question is, when will the Oregon Legislature do something about it?

The league's report notes that mental health services in Oregon have traditionally been provided by the counties, but state funding is inadequate, and the consequences fall on cities -- primarily city police departments, who must deal with mentally ill people in crisis.

Medford's experience bears that out. Between 2012 and 2014, Medford police referrals to Jackson County Mental Health increased 38 percent, and holds on mentally ill people rose 28 percent.

If there was always room for those increased holds, the numbers might be less alarming. But the psychiatric ward at Rogue Regional Medical Center -- the only secure facility available locally-- has only 18 beds, and those are frequently full. With no place to house people in crisis who have not committed a crime, the only alternative is to release them, which can have tragic consequences.

State law governing involuntary commitment of the mentally ill is one obstacle. The law now requires a determination that a person is a danger to themselves or others or unable to care for themselves before involuntarily detaining them. House Bill 3347, which passed the House unanimously April 30, would add language to include people who are unable to meet the basic personal needs "necessary to avoid serious physical harm in the near future" and are not receiving care to avoid such harm.

That's a positive step, but it still leaves police with no place to take people who meet the new definition. That would require money.

Some lawmakers are voicing support for more mental health spending, but the proof will be in the budget that eventually emerges from this legislative session.

This state is somehow able to build highways, buildings and even a new state mental hospital -- in Junction City, where it is supposed to meet the needs of people in "southern Oregon" -- but that hardly addresses the need for emergency hospitalization in Medford or anywhere else. It's time for lawmakers to make crisis mental health treatment a higher priority.

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