On Tuesday, the Oregon House Human Services Committee held a four hour hearing about Oregon State Hospital.  Witnesses included administrators, workers, a resident, a former resident, a family member, the state's lawyer and a panel of advocates including Beckie Child from Mental Health America of Oregon, Chris Bouneff from NAMI and me.  Our panel recommended three things that the state should do:

1. Agree to a court-enforceable agreement to fix OSH.
2. Stop all efforts to build a new state hospital in Junction City.
3. Reform how people go into the hospital and get out, particularly from the criminal courts.

We pointed out that we cannot afford the money to run a new hospital (about $220 million per year) and have not been able to fix OSH on our own.  We said that Oregon must learn how to use precious state hospital beds more effectively and stop asking administrators and staff to be both a hospital and a prison (two incompatible tasks).

I testified that I wanted to be hopeful that Oregon could fix OSH without outside oversight, but experience told us otherwise.  I noted that DRO has sued OSH five times since 1992 in order to force improvements, but the problems don't go away. 

Committee Chair Carolyn Tomei asked me to send her a written summary of those cases.  I did, and now I'm sharing it with you.

Charles B. vs. Concannon:  A Class Action filed in 1992 on behalf of forensic patients and patients with developmental disabilities.  A Settlement Agreement was reached in 1994 which required that all patients have an individual treatment plan, a baseline assessment, a comprehensive assessment, appropriate referrals, education programs, psychosocial rehabilitation, sex offender treatment, and vocational services.  Staff were to receive 80 hours of core curriculum training.  Professional staffing levels were to be adequate, movement restriction and seclusion & restraint policies were to be changed, and patients with cognitive disabilities were to be assessed and placed in appropriate alternative settings.

Miranda B. vs. Kulongoski:  A Class Action filed in 2000 on behalf of civilly committed patients in Oregon’s state hospitals.  A Settlement Agreement was reached in 2004 which required DHS to develop 75 new licensed placements and/or supported housing, discharge at least 31 class members, begin discharge planning upon hospital admission, refer any patient who was not placed within 90 of being ready-to-place to an Extended Care Management Unit for assistance in placing, develop a fund to assist with exceptional barriers to placement which would start with $1,500,000, and develop a process to monitor vacancies in community facilities.

Bartow and Oregon Advocacy Center vs. DHS:  A Wrongful Death action filed in 2002 on behalf of a patient who died during a take-down and an unsafe conditions claim on behalf of all OSH patients.  The case was settled in 2004 for $200,000 in damages plus an agreement to place defibrillators on wards and update restraint training to include information on positional asphyxia and de-escalation techniques.

Oregon Advocacy Center vs. Mink:  A Class Action filed in 2002 on behalf of defendants who had been found unable to aid and assist in defense of criminal charges who languished in local jails awaiting transfer to OSH.  Following trial and appeal, OSH was ordered to admit defendants from jail who are found unable to aid and assist in their defense within seven days of such finding.

Harmon vs. Fickle:  2004 Class Action on behalf of forensic patients at OSH. A Settlement Agreement was reached in 2006 that required OSH to hire 30 new professional staff, DHS to hire 4 new community placement developers, OSH to increase the staff to patient ratio from under 1.10 to 1.82, and DHS to create 71 new community placements (at least 30 being intensive case management slots) in addition to 128 planned placements for forensic patients.

A question that comes up at this time of year for many parents of special education students is: are there any good summer programs for my child?

We hear from parents who are able and willing to pay, but can't find a good summer program that meets their child's special needs.  We also hear from parents who are owed compensatory education and are looking for something positive for their child during the summer.  

Please add a comment to this blog post by clicking on the blue add comment button below and share the following information with us and other parents:

1. The type of program
2. Your child's age & disability
3. Whether your child's experience was good or bad
4. The name, location & cost of the program
5. Dates & hours that the program runs
   (For example, is it 2 hours/day for 3 weeks in August or 5 days/week from 8a-2p all summer?)

How to add a comment

Please register on our website in order to add a comment to this blog post.  You will be asked to enter the following information in order to complete your registration:

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A URL will be generated and e-mailed to you; follow the link to reach a page where you can change your password and complete the registration process. 

Then return to this blog post and click on the blue add comment button.

If you would prefer to submit your comments by e-mail we will add your comments anonymously.  Please click here and enter Summer Programs for Special Education Students in the subject line of the contact form.

If we receive a large response, we will look into developing the information into a resource that contains updated and relevant information about summer programs for special education students.   

We hope to hear from a lot of you!  Thanks for your help!

It’s voting season here in Oregon, the vote by mail state.  Ballots must be received by May 18 in order to be counted.

DRO encourages all Oregonians – and especially Oregonians with disabilities – to fully participate in this election and in our governmental systems.  Voting is a precious right for all citizens and a particularly hard-won right for people with disabilities.

To help make voting easier, DRO works with the League of Women Voters and other groups to produce a Nonpartisan Easy Voting Guide for most elections.  

You can download the Guide from the DRO web site or from www.VoteSource.org.  It’s free!

Why should you vote?  Because elected officials make important decisions about how the government collects and spends money.  Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Vocational Rehabilitation, Community Mental Health Services, Developmental Disability Services, Senior and Disabled Services, Schools, Police, Courts are all funded by the government.  This is your chance to have a say in how they operate.

How should you vote?  That, of course, is up to you.  Some people vote for candidates who they think will help them the most.  Some people vote based on principles that might not help them personally.  Some think government can effectively address social problems; some disagree.  But in order to have your voice heard, you must vote.

If you are a person who has been denied the right to vote by inaccessible voting sites, by family members or facility operators who think you should not be participate, by lack of transportation, or by lack of understandable or readable voting materials, you may particularly enjoy filling out your ballot.  There is nothing like a taste of freedom.

Oregon’s Secretary of State Brown predicted today that only 37% of registered voters will cast a ballot in this election.  Maybe Oregonians with disabilities should be reminding their friends and neighbors “how sweet it is” to vote.