Wednesday, May 10, 2006
For the most part, the community clinics simply don't have the resources to take on these two components of health care.
"The whole mental health system has collapsed," said John Duke, clinic director of the Portland nonprofit Outside In.
And that collapse is being felt most acutely in the emergency departments of the local hospitals. Untreated dental and also mental health conditions are the two main reasons uninsured people show up at emergency departments with acute problems, Gratto said.
Most of the Portland area's mental health clinics are actually run under the auspices of Cascadia Behavioral Health Care. Eighty percent of the people Cascadia serves are insured - by the Oregon Health Plan - according to Cascadia's chief executive officer, Leslie Ford.
"There just isn't money to treat uninsured mentally ill people in the Portland area,"Ford said.
"The whole mental health system has collapsed," said John Duke, clinic director of the Portland nonprofit Outside In.
And that collapse is being felt most acutely in the emergency departments of the local hospitals. Untreated dental and also mental health conditions are the two main reasons uninsured people show up at emergency departments with acute problems, Gratto said.
Most of the Portland area's mental health clinics are actually run under the auspices of Cascadia Behavioral Health Care. Eighty percent of the people Cascadia serves are insured - by the Oregon Health Plan - according to Cascadia's chief executive officer, Leslie Ford.
"There just isn't money to treat uninsured mentally ill people in the Portland area,"Ford said.
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