Oregon Health Authority study: 3k more beds needed in behavioral health system
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon leaders are finally getting a look at just how much the state is behind when it comes to behavioral health treatment – about 3,000 beds short. A new report is giving insight into the gap and what it will take to catch up.
“It’s absolutely consistent with what we believe the state as a whole needs to address our currently under-resourced, and, I would venture to say, broken behavioral health system of care,” Central City Concern CEO and president Andy Mendenhall said, adding, “I’m really optimistic that rather than spending a decade or two with a languishing behavioral health system of care, we can rally around this challenge and again, this opportunity and need exists across our entire state.”
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A study now published through the Oregon Health Authority by Public Consulting Group is highlighting the disparities between where the state is and what it will take to meet the demand, including about 3,000 more mental illness and substance abuse treatment beds, compared to the current roughly 5,000 beds.
It will also take about $500 million over the next five years. Behavioral health professionals say it’s an issue that has grown, partly due to underfunding, as well as drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl.
“What we found was that the population of people with those conditions is not growing, but folks with those conditions are much sicker than they were before. We think that is because of a lack of access and because of new, more serious drugs,” Health Share of Oregon CEO Mindy Stadtlander said. “It took us a long time of underinvestment to get into this situation that we’re in and I have a lot of hope by partnering across the governor’s office, the legislature, seeing a level of collaboration among large cities and counties now, that we can get out of this.”
One of the other hurdles pointed out in the report is the behavioral health workforce shortage in Oregon.
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“The more things we bring online, if we outpace the number of workers we have, all we’re going to do is shuffle qualified workforce from one place to another,” Chris Bouneff, the executive director of Oregon’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said.
“We now have clear and reliable preliminary benchmarks to pursue a sustainable multi-year funding and program effort to ensure every person in Oregon with a serious substance use disorder or mental illness can get the care they need,” OHA Behavioral Health Director Ebony Clarke said in a statement.
Those working in behavioral health say it also helps pinpoint where resources are needed, rather than just putting a large facility in one place.
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“Our history is, we’ll just build something in Portland and ship everybody to Portland from everywhere else in the state,” Bouneff said. “This finally gives us the state broken down by region in a manner where we can look at regional needs and get resources closer to the people that need the services. That is a tremendously new approach that this report will hopefully bring about.”
A final version of the report is set to come out in June, adding in potential ways to fund these resources over the next several years.
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