In Oregon, we need a complete overhaul of our mental health system. In 2025, according to Sheriff Duncan, Linn County Sheriff’s Office received 995 calls that contained the word “mental health.” This signifies to me the importance of our
communities dealing well with our mentally ill folks. I am someone who suffers PTSD from my time being homeless and enduring multiple assaults. And yes, I have become suicidal and the police came to my house during a PTSD episode. They convinced me to go to the Emergency Room. This occurred approximately five years ago.
Once I was at the ER, I sat, shivering in the cold and very clinical environment. A nurse offered me a blanket and I was grateful, though the blanket was so thin that it didn’t quite do the job of warming me up. I was placed in a room where hospital staff would watch me to ensure I was safe.
After someone with suicidal ideation is in the ER, the attending physician makes a call to Linn County Mental Health and they come to the ER to perform an evaluation. In my case, further hospitalization was recommended. So, I waited and waited for two days and still, not a single psychiatric hospital bed in Oregon was available.
I refused to wait another day in the ER and left against medical advice. There were no police holds on me, so I wasn’t required to be there. I was exhausted and felt defeated as I returned home. My call for help resulted in a large ER bill and no real help.
I needed to be placed in a psychiatric hospital for a short stay but because of lack of beds available, I’d have to face my demons with the help of my husband, who took care of me during this time. If it weren’t for my husband, I might not be alive today.
So, what is the solution? Infrastructure. We are in great need of psychiatric hospitals that are well-equipped to deal with those going through perhaps their darkest days. Treatment is essential for someone going through a mental health crisis and because we have done such a poor job on a State level, those hospitals don’t exist.
If we want to offer compassionate care, we will need to see more hospitals being built. I know of several homeless and mentally ill people who deserve better than digging through garbage cans and being victimized on the streets as they are vulnerable and make for an easy target for predators.
I believe in forced treatment for those whose mental illness has caused their homelessness. It is not compassionate to leave them on the streets to fend for themselves.
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