Director's Message

March 9, 2007

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, M.D., director

Receive Director's Message updates by email

"I am not young enough to know everything."
~Oscar Wilde

Something happened during the past two weeks that presents great opportunity for Oregon, and I wanted to share it with you.

As you may be aware, we recently announced plans for replacing the aging Oregon State Hospital, selected the sites for two new hospitals (in Salem and Junction City) and are moving forward with a funding request to make that happen.

But the opportunity I mentioned above does not lie in constructing new buildings; it's about defining a new vision for mental health care in Oregon. For the first time in more than 100 years we are creating a new mental health treatment system.

Our goal is to be able to offer all Oregonians improved access to mental health services along the entire continuum of need. That includes providing statewide access to phone crisis counseling, a range of local outpatient services, community residential treatment programs and state-of-the-art psychiatric hospitals.

The foundation of this system is its community-based approach – it brings services to people in their communities when they first need them. We know from experience that early detection and intervention in many cases can prevent problems from growing worse, minimize stays in more intensive and expensive hospital settings, prevent homelessness, and reduce the numbers of individuals who end up in prison -- and ultimately promote recovery. An improved community-based and prevention-based mental health system benefits everyone.

Depending on where you choose to start, it's been either 145 or 124 years since Oregon significantly revamped its mental health system. In 1862 -- 145 years ago -- Oregon's Governor issued a call to provide care and treatment to people with mental illness, and as a result the Hawthorne Asylum was created. In 1883 -- 124 years ago -- the Oregon Legislature opened the first state-owned and -operated mental health hospital. And now, in 2007, we are moving forward again.

This move toward a new vision of mental health care is the result of a multi-year development process that has involved hundreds of individuals throughout Oregon. Legislators, citizens, current and former patients, family members, community groups, consultants, health care providers and clinicians, hospitals, judges, DHS employees, and many, many others have worked long and hard to define a new system that improves the delivery of care for people with mental health problems. At all times the focus has been on creating a holistic, system-wide approach that uses evidence-based best care practices. It's been a very rewarding process in which to be involved, and I expect the results for Oregonians to be equally rewarding.

It's been a long time coming, and it's sorely needed. Right now the statewide capacity along the care continuum does not meet the demand for treatment, and the problem will only grow as the state's population grows. By beginning the process of building new hospitals, opening more community-based treatment facilities and bringing services to people early in their mental health crisis, we can meet the growing need in a way that also improves outcomes for patients.

This is going to be an exciting transition in patient care, one that will have major positive benefits to everyone in this state. This kind of change doesn't come along often, and we are fortunate that it's happening now. We will all be part of something very significant for the future of Oregon. It's a wonderful opportunity.

###

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us

This message is intended for all department employees. Please read it electronically, if possible. Managers and supervisors are asked to share the message each week with employees who do not have email access.