Another epic bungle at Multnomah County

The Lund Report has a most alarming story up today, by Nick Budnick, about atrocious management at Multnomah County's mental health diversion unit. If you wonder why there are so many deranged, dangerous people running naked and screaming through the streets of Portland, well, think about it. Who's in charge? Multnomah County, wth Jessica "Chevy" Vega Pederson at the helm.

Experienced frontline workers keep quitting a Multnomah County unit that’s key to protecting public safety and connecting mentally ill people with needed care... The small county unit of about a dozen field workers, known as Forensic Diversion, was once considered a national model showing how diverting mentally ill people from the costly criminal justice system improves care and saves the public money.... Now, says former worker Kristen Anderson, “from what I can understand, the forensic diversion team is basically in shambles.” 

She said that’s because managers have failed to support workers and declined to implement long-promised safety improvements — including for herself after a client suddenly approached her and slammed her head into a sidewalk curb in the middle of Old Town nearly three years ago....

Asked about the workers’ complaints, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, who directs the county’s bureaucracy, responded with a statement through a spokesperson. “Since I learned of these issues, we increased (human resources) support to build out the Diversion team and strengthened the support they need and our processes — that work is still underway.”

She blamed U.S. District Judge Mike Mosman’s court order that imposed discharge deadlines on the Oregon State Hospital.... However, the union said staff started raising concerns long before the Mosman order, and county management’s response has continued to be punctuated by foot-dragging and a lack of urgency....

The situation has gotten so bad, records show, that staff has raised concerns about whether they are being asked to commit perjury in court. They fear that they could be held liable or face professional consequences for failures caused by understaffing....

Other officials are watching the situation with concern, including the county’s elected watchdog, Auditor Jennifer McGuirk.... McGuirk met with about a dozen current and former employees in the unit before emailing Vega Pederson and said that based on the concerns she heard, “I believe the employees.”

The auditor said that when she briefed Vega Pederson’s office, she was struck by the seeming disconnect between what staff are experiencing and the level of awareness managers expressed. Top county staff seemed unaware the union had formally demanded to bargain over safety concerns three months before. “It really concerned me that the chair’s office did not know or seem to know about the demand to bargain,” she said. “I should not be the one telling them that.”

There are so many things that should not be happening in Multnomah County government, but are. Every suit in that building deserves a kick in the pants. The city and county really should be merged as a first step toward getting their acts together.

Anyway, the whole mental health story is behind a paywall on Lund, but the Trib has it for free here, at least for now. You might want to read the whole thing.