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@OHAOregon
February 9, 2024
Contact: Amber Shoebridge, Amber.Shoebridge@oha.oregon.gov
Portland, Ore.- The number of people who are ordered to receive competency restoration services either at Oregon State Hospital (OSH) or through a Community Mental Health Program (CMHP) has been building towards crisis levels for years in Oregon. Many of the individuals are living with a wide range of behavioral health and social service needs that extend across multiple systems.
To better characterize this need and opportunities for improvement, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) contracted with Program Design and Evaluation Services (PDES) in 2021 to build an overall picture of Oregon’s competency restoration system and population. In the final report, researchers highlight three key themes:
Legal community and clinical teams may have different definitions and measurements of competency restoration.
Access to adequate restoration services varies across the state.
There is a lack of data transparency and information sharing across sectors.
“If we are going to make a true impact on the lives of those placed under aid and assist orders, we must have all parties agree on treatment, measurements and definitions,” said David Baden, Deputy Director for Policy and Program for OHA. “To reach a common goal we need to speak the same language and we need to share information. We cannot continue to allow citizens of Oregon to get lost in the system because we are not communicating well. ”
Opportunities
The PDES report concluded with concrete opportunities for state and local systems to improve competency restoration. OHA is already pursuing and implementing many of them:
Use a cross‐sector, multi‐faceted approach
Support implementation of competency restoration with materials and technical assistance
Address workforce capacity, development, and training
Improve data systems and information sharing
OHA will continue to review the report to identify additional system improvements we can make to Oregon’s continuum of behavioral health care.