Gov. Kotek signs 4 bills into law to improve mental health treatment access

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Governor Tina Kotek signed four house bills into law, which she said address issues of care across Oregon.

Kotek said the bills — HB 2005, HB 2059, HB 2024, and HB 3321 — touch on prevention, intervention, and boosting the state’s overall response. She signed the bills at Fora Health, a substance use disorder treatment center in Southeast Portland.

HB 2005 changes the laws around civil commitment and says a person is in need of treatment if they are a danger to themselves, others, or cannot perform basic tasks.

“We’re going to have a more direct path to saying, hey, let’s get you some health care right now, because you’re clearly in crisis and because you’re so ill, you might not know it,” Kotek said. “But if we can get you stabilized and get you somewhere safer, you’re going to get better.”

Kotek said as the commitment law changes, officials need to use it carefully and prudently. But she said, at the end of the day, it is much easier to help someone before something goes bad, or they hurt themselves or someone else. HB 2059 works alongside 2005 and invests $65 million in the state’s treatment capacity.

“Those two bills together are about making a course correction here in our state, about how our system can do a better job helping more individuals who are suffering from acute mental illness to make sure they get the care they need,” Kotek said.

The governor also signed HB 2024 — allocating $6 million in grants to hire and keep mental health treatment workers — and HB 3321, investing $1 million in substance abuse prevention for youth. Kotek said all these bills together are about better approaches to how people in crises are served.

“It’s about more resources for treatment and for supporting our workforce,” she said. And it’s also about prevention, going upstream to take care of our young people, before their lives get a lot more difficult. And together, these bills are an important step to make sure we can have an Oregon where people are healthier and safer.”

Kotek said these bills will give people who need help at all levels places to go, which is expected to be a substantive change from the status quo for Oregonians.

“The message for me is my administration is taking on all the different aspects of improving access to care when it comes to mental health and addiction, making sure we have the workforce, making sure we have the beds, making sure the laws that are in place when someone is really hurting, they can get the care they need and making sure at the end of the day, we’re preventing this by working with our young people,” she said.