At a time when evidence about successful treatments and recovery from mental illnesses minimizes using hospitals, Oregon is spending nearly one billion dollars to build two more for nearly 1,000 beds. Advocates fear this a return to the 19th-century practice favoring isolation in prison-like conditions rather than community treatments. Oregon has already been besieged with problems including suicides, a four-year justice department investigation, and insufficient staffing leading to mandated overtime for nurses, The Statesman-Journal: has embarked on a multi-part series showing the origins and consequence of this policy decision.
Chris Bouneff, executive director of NAMI Oregon, The Statesman-Journal: "Not only is that a huge waste of money to build; there's no way they can operate it without sucking the community mental health system dry." Hearings are being conducted now.
