Back in 2017, @KristianOPB, @RaptisHelen and the @thelundreport all covered the opening of @AdventHealth's Emotional Wellness Center. Today, Adventist just closed that facility and several clinics, stranding patients and deepening Oregon's mental health crisis.

In better days, Dr. Pritham Raj told @thelundreport about the potential benefits @AdventHealth's Emotional Wellness Center could bring the city. Today, his efforts have been completely kneecapped: https://www.thelundreport.org/content/adventist-hopes-move-needle-portland%E2%80%99s-mental-health-crisis

Already @NAMICommunicate ranks Oregon worst for prevalence of mental illness. While Raj and others argued that it's partly because mental illness is somewhat more accepted here, Oregon's access to mental health care still lags compared to the Northeast: https://www.mhanational.org/issues/ranking-states-2018-0

Oregon's single biggest issue? Viewing mental health as an inpatient issue. Health care providers here -- and that includes @AdventHealth and @OHSUNews -- often lack a cohesive structure connecting a patient's physical and mental health concerns.

As a result, patients -- especially low-income patients -- are forced to cobble together a patchwork of providers that likely never communicates. This forces an already burdened patient to have to repeat everything for medical history to insurance and payment info ad nauseam.

Oregon and its health care providers place an undue burden on patients with mental health issues that would be tantamount to malpractice if forced upon those with physical ailments. Thus, in Oregon, the system just waits for those dealing with mental health to snap.

And that isn't great, considering that 13% of people in Oregon who see outpatient care for mental health issues end up having an encounter with police. That's by the state's own admission: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/HPA/ANALYTICS/MHSIPSurveyDocs/Adult-Survey-Report-2019.pdf

While 5.5% of people in Oregon dealing with mental health issues are houseless and another 5% are in recovery, 85% are housed and more than half are employed. @AdventHealth's Emotional Wellness Center was built to prevent mental illness from causing or compounding other issues.