Portland City Council Authorizes $70,000 Grant for People in Mental Health, Drug-Related Crises

The project could help fill a vacuum that occurred when the sobering station closed in early 2020.

Unity Center for Behavioral Health. (Wesley Lapointe)

The Portland City Council on Wednesday approved a $70,000 grant that could reduce congestion in hospital emergency rooms from the number of citizens experiencing mental health and drug-related crises.

The money funds a project called the Behavioral Health Emergency Coordination Network—an effort to partially replace a sobering station that proved ill-equipped to handle an increasing number of people who arrived in a state of psychosis from taking stimulant drugs, including too much or highly potent methamphetamine.

In January 2020, Central City Concern abruptly closed the Northeast Portland sobering station after 35 years. The facility offered an alternative to taking intoxicated people to jail.

As WW reported last February, that closure created a vacuum for people experiencing mental health and drug-induced crises. The problem was compounded by the arrival of cheaper and more potent meth on the streets of Portland.

People experiencing mental health and drug-induced crises are often taken to a psychiatric emergency service center at the the Unity Center for Behavioral Health in the Rose Quarter. But when Unity's psychiatric unit is full, WW reported last year, those patients are then diverted to local emergency rooms—which were already short on beds pre-COVID.

The new project could potentially alleviate some of that congestion: Using the "hub and spoke" network model, it seeks to create a triage unit from which patients can transition to a sobering center, an urgent care facility or a psychiatric unit.

"We need a more coordinated and integrated approach to providing meaningful care to people in crisis," Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a statement. "Too often, police are the only available resource for people in crisis. While the police do great work, we can do better by working together to create a more robust and coordinated network of support."

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.