And with that I want
to bring in Maggie Vespa now to talk
to us because I think we should tell
people who they can call instead of
just focusing on who sounds fresh.
Not responding right so.
And I want to talk about something
that you have covered extensively,
which is the houseless community,
and something I think,
a lot of people in Portland
have seen time and time again,
which is they are experiencing
a person who is going through
some type of mental crisis and
they feel helpless as to how to
get involved or maybe help
that person. Yeah, we've all been
there on Portland streets, right?
Like everybody's been there to the
point that I asked people on Facebook.
To tell me about a time
when they've been there.
When they've seen someone on our
streets who clearly needs help
and viewers did not hesitate,
Julie wrote in here's a couple of
examples Julie wrote in and said
Memorial Day there was a woman
meandering down the middle of my street
wearing a bra and Capri yoga pants,
twisting her hair and talking to herself.
It was hot out and she was walking
around with no shoes on the cement.
Then she wrote, the police came.
They talked to her and left
because she denied meeting her.
Then Jackie wrote in about a different woman.
Said the woman was throwing
dirt and rocks onto the road,
walking out into traffic.
She was wearing underwear,
a bra and a clear plastic bag like a poncho.
And then she said we called an
emergency but we couldn't get through.
We eventually called 911 and officers
showed up about 20 minutes later
she flashed them and they left.
And you know,
Jackie's point speaks to a big question.
And in our newsroom,
I've gotten this question from our coworkers.
We've talked about this.
People want to know who can you call
who were the option the people in
those examples? Clearly need
help intervention. Yeah and
is 911 and non-emergency are those
the only options that we have.
So for the last couple of weeks I've
been reaching out to city and county
officials to housing advocates.
Basically people who should
know and there was no consensus.
About half of them actually forwarded
my email to Portland Street response.
That's the new program that sends
an EMT and crisis counselor to
nonviolent mental health calls,
but right now that's only up and
running in the Lents neighborhood
in Southeast Portland, so for most.
Portlanders across the city they can't
call and ask for Portland Street response.
It's not an option.
We talked
about the the the officials
that you spoke to.
I sat down recently with Multnomah
County District Attorney Mike Schmidt
and it's coming up on his one year
and we kind of wanted to talk to
him about what this year has been
like and I asked him what I asked
everybody who would you call in a
situation like that and he really
didn't have an answer either.
Take a listen
and the average person who I talked
to and asked that question too.
They don't know the answer as to who to
reach out to or who to call in that moment.
That's a great question.
I mean honestly,
you know if it's not a crime happening,
you know I might call non-emergency right
because it's maybe not a 911 thing,
but hopefully you can get directed
to some assistance.
I think Multnomah County has other
numbers that you can call to get
people that I don't even know him
off top my head mean either and I.
I mean is that, is that something we
need to do a better job of educating?
I couldn't tell you the non emergency
number right now off the top of my head.
I have it saved in my phone otherwise so I
couldn't tell you either.
So it's pretty wild to think about.
I mean. And again two people who you
would assume would probably be one.
You would know those answers,
but but we didn't,
but we looked for him OK and we
did find out some things for you.
So Maggie, why don't you
tell us what we've learned?
Yeah, we found one resource that a lot
of people don't know about the staff
who work for this service say they know
a lot of people don't know about this.
So right now I want you to grab a pen.
I want you to grab your phone
and get ready to write down this
number or put it in as a contact.
This is 1 #1 resource.
It's available across Multnomah County 24/7.
Years into a housing crisis,
it appears more people than ever
are struggling on Portland streets. You
have to give us.
A place to live
people who don't appear dangerous.
They're not committing a crime,
they just need help Portlanders
see it every day like I
was just looking at a
guy that was. Have clothes and I'm like Dang.
Who do I call 4 weeks?
Our team has been asking our 911
and the police non-emergency line.
Our only options. Would you even call?
Do you even know who to call?
No too many of us don't know and if I
was going to say anything for folks I
would say pull out your phones
right now. And create a new
contact. Enter Julie Dodge and
a lesser known phone number.
Here it is. Plug in the number 503-988-4888.
It's really easy again. That's
503-988-4888 that number,
which will leave up for another
15 seconds as Multnomah County's
official mental health crisis line.
It's been around for more than 20 years.
Operators answer it 24/7 and they
can dispatch services countywide.
In fact, they field about
70,000 calls per year.
You can call us
when you're having concerns about
anyone for anything you know whether
it's a family member who you're
concerned about might be having some
mental health concerns. Is depressed,
maybe you haven't heard from them to,
you know a neighbor that you
haven't seen in awhile as well
as people that you see outside.
Who are. You're not sure how to
respond to them or how to approach
them. All that begs another question,
if you called, who would they send?
My name is Jackie Thompson and I am a
Co program manager at project respond.
One prime example, Cascadia
behavioral healthcare project
respond, or the people that can
go out and kind of be those experts
that say what might be going on
for that person based out of their
discrete Northeast Portland headquarters
project respond is also available 24/7.
They have as many as eight
teams on staff at all times.
Each team is made up of two Masters
level mental health clinicians
who responded to nonviolent.
Mental health calls across Multnomah County
911 does not dispatch project respond.
They take calls via the county's crisis line,
or they can be paged by first responders
on a scene like police or firefighters.
They can do everything from taking
someone to a hospital or shelter to
pointing them to the nearest food
bank. What we're trying to do is look for
the immediate within the next 12 hours.
Can someone take care of themselves?
In like an adequate way,
and could someone make sure
somebody doesn't hurt themselves or
anybody else project respond
has been around for decades.
If you've never heard of them,
you'd be forgiven.
The clinicians dressed in street
clothes and drive white unmarked
cars for years project respond,
wanted to fly under the radar and
protect those they helped from the
stigma of mental health crises.
But now Portland is in crisis,
so they're spreading the word called
the Multnomah County crisis line.
Again, that number is 503.
988-4888 and know that teams
are standing by to help.
We still
have this this.
Unfortunate worry that when we show up,
somebody is going to be worried that
their neighbors are going to find out
that a mental health response came,
but the other side of that is a
community saying we want more
mental health and to be really
accessible to our community.
All right, here's that
crisis line one more time.
And something to note, by the way,
and this might seem obvious,
but just want to say project,
respond and and similar programs.
They don't have lights and sirens so
response times can fluctuate greatly.
They can frankly get stuck in traffic.
They won't get there most of the time.
As fast as police or EMT's would.
So if the situation seems urgent or if
you're concerned for your or anyone
safety everyone we talked to for
this piece says absolutely call 911.
That's the best choice.
Speaking of 911, I kind of
want to circle back to St the
Street response team because again,
this is the team that's supposed
to help in this situation.
That's only right now a pilot program
in one neighborhood of this city.
Yeah, exactly. So
for those who've been keeping up.
Portland Street response was supposed
to go citywide basically next spring,
but sort of earlier this year.
The City Council kind of pump the
brakes a little bit and they said,
you know we're going to wait
to guarantee that funding.
We're gonna see how it goes.
We're going to review the data.
Mayor Ted Wheeler was one of
the people who felt that way,
so it may go citywide next
spring and there might.
There might be a delay because
of that by multiple months,
so a lot of people were pretty frustrated
by that. If you remember,
we are learning some things during
this pilot program, though.
I spoke to some people from
street response recently,
and one thing that surprised
me is that even when they are
finding people who need help,
they often cannot provide that.
Help for them because right
now it doesn't exist.
Listen here.
Well, I was out in the field and I
was working with someone who they
wanted shelter and also wanted to
get into drug treatment and we tried
contacting our services that we
and our partners that we typically
work with and there was nowhere
that we could take this person.
So forgive me if I'm wrong,
but wasn't that one of the big
selling points of a program like
this not just to respond and to keep
maybe police officers or someone
with a gun from being the only point
of contact with someone in crisis,
but also to find them help.
We knew from the very outset of this
program that there was already a gap
in the system for all three of those.
The housing,
the mental health and substance use.
So that's no surprise.
What we decided to do with that
is to try to collect that data,
so now every time that we can't
get somebody into the service for
documenting that into our chart,
and our hope is that at the end
of the 12 month pilot,
we can take that to Council
into the county and say,
here's where the gaps in
the system exists for
us. So they are tracking the number
of times that they can't get
people help who need help, which.
I guess can't entirely surprise you, no.
I mean, that's not shocking.
At the end of the day,
you know our resources in this
Community are overwhelmed,
and that includes the county crisis line
and project respond who we highlighted.
I mean, they've already responded
to more than 2900 calls and made
contact with people on those calls
followed up so far this year.
And so with that pace,
they're well on their way to setting
a new annual record for the year 2021.
So there is just a huge need and
not enough resources to go around.
But we wanted to highlight this one
here today. Maggie, thanks.