Editorial: Oregon mental health care needs improvement
Published 7:12 am Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Last year, around this time, legislators discussed what bills might come up and the challenges Oregon faces in health care. One area of particular concern was behavioral health.
This year, legislators are again discussing what bills might come up and the challenges the state faces in health care.
One area of particular concern, again, is behavioral health. Let’s start with the Oregon State Hospital. It houses patients that can need the most help. Many of them have been charged with crimes and struggle with severe mental health issues.
On March 18 patient Kenneth Hass fell and hit his head. He was on the floor in the Oregon State Hospital. Staff at the hospital watched him for four minutes. Then, they walked into the room to check on him. They tried to revive him. He died. He had been in a locked seclusion room, a place designed so he would be closely monitored.
At the time, it was one of five deaths at the hospital in two years at the state hospital.
That is just the beginning of the troubles at the state hospital. The Oregon Health Authority has been fined more than $1 million for delaying admissions to the hospital. A federal judge fined the hospital $500 a day when a patient is forced to wait in jail for more than a week before being admitted.
The hospital has not had a permanent superintendent in more than two years, despite searches. Jim Diegel, the former head of the St. Charles Health System, was brought in as interim superintendent and work to improve the care there and the working conditions for employees.
The problems at the Oregon State Hospital are not the only ones in behavioral health in Oregon. But they are rippling across the state, making every other behavioral health challenge more challenging.
Gov. Tina Kotek’s staff struck an optimistic tone in a news release about a new shared path and purpose for counties and the state to work together on mental health challenges.
“Together, the Governor’s Office, counties, and OHA reaffirm their shared focus on increasing access to behavioral health services and supporting local partners so every Oregonian — regardless of where they live — can get the care they need, when they need it,” the news release concludes.
Will patients — who should be or are — at the Oregon State Hospital also get the care they need when they need it?