By Jeff Cogen, Contributing Columnist
Recently, I hosted a screening in the Multnomah County
boardroom of “Alien Boy” — the powerful film about the life and death of James
Chasse Jr.
Watching that incredibly poignant film was a tragic – and
all-too-topical – reminder of the potentially deadly conflict that can arise
when police encounter people diagnosed with mental illness.
As chair of Multnomah County, I know full well the
importance of providing Portland police officers with every possible resource
to ensure their encounters with people diagnosed with mental illness are safe
for everybody and provide people the help they need.
Fortunately, we already have a great resource in our
community to achieve those goals of safety and getting people effective
treatment – the Crisis Assessment Treatment Center (CATC).
Unfortunately, it now faces a grave threat to its existence
in Mayor Charlie Hales’ recently announced budget proposal.
In our community and in our country, we have shared too
often the sting of regret that follows tragedies that might have been avoided.
Whether it’s a horrific national event like Newtown or
perhaps a personally painful experience of a loved one diagnosed with a mental
illness, each of us searches in retrospect to pinpoint the missed opportunity
that could have saved a life.
It is rare when we can anticipate those moments and act upon
them. But the CATC – with the stabilizing services its staff provides — allows
us to do just that.
Opened less than two years ago, the CATC in inner southeast
Portland already has established a track record of success to reduce the chance
for any repeat of the Chasse tragedy.
The CATC provides up to 16 beds of 24/7 secure care for
residents experiencing a mental health crisis.
People needing the CATC are also referred by community
partners such as Project Respond, involuntary commitment teams and treatment
courts.
About 40 percent of the people placed at CATC are diverted
from inpatient hospital emergency rooms and psychiatric units.
Nearly 1,300 people have used this essential community
service, and I’m proud that my proposed budget for the upcoming 2014 fiscal
year again contains the county’s $600,000-plus share of funding for the CATC.
But despite the county making its funding priorities based
on commitments from our community partners such as the City of Portland, the
mayor’s proposed budget would kill the city’s matching share.
If the city breaks its promise to provide its share of the
funding, it’s the people served by the CATC who will suffer.
Here’s what that suffering means in human terms: We estimate
about 200 people a year will end up not getting admitted for the services they
desperately need.
The center would have to reduce its available beds from 16
to 11, as well as limit its hours of admission, and restrict how many people
the staff could see each day.
The results? Those folks now treated at the CATC would be
shifted to already overburdened hospital emergency rooms, psychiatric units and
jails. And the costs would fall back on the already strained general funds of
the state and county for indigent people and Medicaid.
I could never predict exactly how any of those 200 people –
and the many people whose lives they touch – would suffer without a safe bed at
the CATC. I could only hope they don’t suffer.
But I don’t want to just hope. I want to act to make sure no
family has to look back and wonder if the CATC could have saved their loved
one.
As somebody who has been in a position of cutting budgets my
entire term as county chair, I know the mayor faces a series of tough budget
decisions.
But Multnomah County has made difficult budget cuts for more
than a decade so the county can prioritize scarce taxpayer dollars on essential
services like the CATC.
The county and city opened this center less than two years
ago after agreeing to work together based on a recommendation from a mayoral
task force after the death of Chasse, who had been diagnosed with
schizophrenia.
I am saddened by the new mayor’s proposal to renege on that
partnership.
But I am optimistic that the mental health community and the
homeless community will lend their powerful voices to show the mayor and the
rest of the City Council that it would be shortsighted not to find the money to
honor the city’s commitment to help fund the CATC, and the Police Bureau’s
commitment to use the CATC.
After all, the federal Department of Justice’s 2012
investigation of the Portland Police Bureau concluded, “PPB officers use more
force than necessary in effectuating arrests for low level offenses involving
people who are or appear to be in mental health crisis.”
And getting beyond
the painfully human costs of hamstringing the CATC, we know siphoning money out
of the mental health safety net is shortsighted. Just look at the record $2.3
million settlement proposal coming before the mayor and the Portland City
Council over a man diagnosed with bipolar disorder who was shot by a Portland
cop.
That settlement alone would cover almost four years of the
city’s promised commitment to the CATC.
At a time when we face such deep challenges to funding our
mental health safety net, we know hamstringing the CATC cannot — and will not —
be supported by our community.
Jeff Cogen is the Chairman of the Multnomah County Board of
Commissioners. He has served on the county board since 2006.
This article appears in 2013-05-10.