Kotek, Drazan agree: Involuntary mental health treatment bill ‘incredibly important’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — One of the high-profile bills under consideration in the Oregon legislature this session is a move to change the rules regarding involuntary mental health treatment for people suffering with mental illness.

Gov. Tina Kotek told the leaders who are working on the bill, “This is important. We need to talk about it.”

And House Minority Leader Christine Drazan—who lost to Kotek in the 2022 governor’s race—agrees. “There is an appetite to shake up issues around civil commitment. That’s incredibly important.”

The new bill, SB 171, redefines “danger to self and others” as well as “unable to provide basic needs.” It’s backed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and allows commitments if harm is likely within 30 days and clarifies specific criteria for those unable to meet their basic needs.

Because the current law is vague, case law set a precedent that has made “danger” be interpreted as ‘about to commit suicide or homicide.’ The bar for “inability to provide basic needs” is so low people suffer with mental illness on the streets.

In 2022, Oregon ranked near the bottom for access to mental health care. Two years later, Kotek told KOIN 6 News her plan for addressing involuntary commitment issues must be done “carefully,” but she thinks “we have to provide some different tools to get people help.”

More recently, Kotek told KOIN 6 News there has been “a lot of good work by community partners, particularly NAMI over the last year, to talk about what can we do to improve criteria for civil commitment to help people get the health care they need when they have decompensated. It’s really important.”

NAMI Oregon Executive Director Chris Bouneff said the Oregon State Hospital is now almost entirely for those with mental illness who have been charged or convicted of crimes. They’re pushing to keep people with severe mental illness out of the criminal justice system.

So is Oregon’s governor.

“I believe we can catch some of those folks earlier,” Kotek said.

NAMI also said the state must help families access mental health care earlier before crises turn dangerous.

Kotek agrees with the group. But, she said, “we have to also make sure that communities have the resources when someone has been stabilized to go to.”

That’s why NAMI also submitted companion legislation to accelerate development of residential treatment.

Meantime, the Commitment to Change Workgroup recently released recommendations to Oregon lawmakers to improve civil commitments. Some families feel it was watered down because of a requirement for full consensus among constituents.

“What was frustrating about Commitment to Change was realizing that some constituent representatives on the group were there to make it harder to hospitalize someone who is extremely unwell instead of making it more accessible,” said Jerri Clark, a mother who’s son died by suicide after a long battle trying to access mental health treatment.

This time, Kotek agrees with the families.

“I agree. I don’t think they went far enough,” the governor said. “What they’re recommending I would put in the housekeeping category and should get done. And I think we need to go further.”

Drazan also agrees.

“I really do think that the families that have that direct experience are the ones that we should be listening to right now,” she said. “When we listen instead to the groups that have potentially an agenda in those conversations, instead of listening to the families that have experienced the extraordinary negative outcomes that can occur with inaction, I think we’re missing an opportunity right now.”

The first thing the state needs to do is open up treatment beds for people in the community, Drazan said.

“It is incumbent on the governor herself to be able to commit to prioritizing more beds for people that need that level of care,” Drazan told KOIN 6 News. “We’re talking about no access for people that haven’t committed a crime, who so desperately need intensive, intensive residential supports, and there’s just nowhere for them to go right now.”

NAMI is finalizing an amendment to their civil commitment bill right now that focuses on precise wording for two key terms: such as a definition of “serious physical harm,” and “significant physical harm.”

“It’s stuff with a fine point that will impact how courts interpret the law. There are a lot of pluses and minuses to consider,” Bouneff said. “I describe it as the stuff over which lawyers argue. It seems arcane, but it is important.”

He hopes to wrap up the language soon. Whether their bill gets a hearing depends on the progress of ongoing meetings on Friday, but he said NAMI is committed to keeping the bill intact.

It’s unclear where this bill will land. But both Democrats and Republicans appear to be prioritizing people who have long been neglected.