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Mental Health Issues

The police in Portland are looking at the "Memphis model" of dealing with mentally challenged citizens. A group meeting under the auspices of County Commissioner Sharon Kelly is proposing a county-wide intake/ triage system to handle disturbed individuals. Such a system would be able to determine if a person is psychotic, unstable, drunk, on drugs, or simply agitated. This would help prevent further cases of police bringing "unruly" citizens to Hooper Detox if they are unsure of their disposition.

The talk at these meetings has been encouraging. A police sergeant spoke of how mentally challenged individuals become frightened when they see police, and police become frightened too, but that it is up to the police to defuse that situation rather than escalate it.

The Memphis model includes one person being on call in every precinct on every shift who is specially trained to deal with police calls involving the mentally ill. They will wear a pin or other identifying tag. Apparently, once the community gets to know these officers, fear subsides and situations can be handled calmly. POPSG hopes to contact grassroots organizations in Memphis to determine the actual viability of this plan.

Meanwhile, the police are counting on the mental health community to donate all their time to this program, but what's worse is the situation some people have read about in the mainstream press. The Lloyd district business association is fighting furiously to keep the triage center from being located at Holladay Park hospital because they are afraid it will hurt the image of their area. But, as Police Chief Charles Moose pointed out one of the Commissioner's meetings, dozens of patients released from Dammasch over the past and next few years will probably gravitate toward that area, triage center or not.

The idea of the triage center is to find a good destination for the people brought there, be it returns home, entry into community homes, or to hospitals. But the Lloyd District has nothing to fear, for the private company which runs Holladay Park hospital, Legacy, has stated that they are "not interested in entering into an agreement with the county" to create this facility. Between the lines, you can envision the business people figuring out ways their 50 beds could generate more money. Between hospital management and the business community, people in either arena--including the Rose Garden arena--no longer seem to be interested in the public good as the bottom line.

Dare we say that in this situation, at least with regard to fighting Legacy and the Lloyd district, POPSG seems to be siding with the PPB.

*Note in 2024: Portland Copwatch would not have used the same phrasing in this article were it written today, but this is as it appeared in early 1995.

First Trimester, 1995
Also in PPR #5

Portland Copwatch
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

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