Recap of today's AOC-hosted law enforcement and behavioral health roundtable
Jessica Pratt
Commissioners, Chairs, Judges, and Partners,
Thank you to all who were able to join us this afternoon in Salem and online for the AOC-hosted law enforcement and behavioral health roundtable. We were grateful to be joined at the top of the meeting by Senator Kate Lieber, Senate Majority Leader and Chair of the Joint Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response for a preview of the legislature’s Measure 110 reform-related goals for this session, particularly around a potential Law Enforcement Assisted Deflection (LEAD) program.
Senator Lieber described at high level some concepts currently being discussed for the 2024 legislative session. We expect to see additional details on the concept as early as tomorrow, January 23rd. Our understanding is that the legislative package will include a wide variety of policy items spanning funding for behavioral health centers, initiatives to increase behavioral health workforce, to implementation of law enforcement assisted diversion programs to help individuals access treatment.
In order to offer productive feedback to the legislature, the discussion centered on four questions:
What should be the threshold and timeline of engagement to qualify for deflection?
Who should the fiscal agent be and who will do the work?
What is the base-line service capacity in the community needed for successful implementation and how much will that cost?
What does success look like?
AOC took no action to support or oppose any policy items during the informational meeting, but main themes emerging from the discussion include:
General consensus that counties should be the fiscal agent and coordination hub for any such diversion program
Counties are the Local Mental Health Authority, Local Public Health Authority, and the supervisory authority
Counties and partners encourage the legislature to explore formula funding or block-grant models rather than cyclical competitive grants as a funding vehicle
Discussion about using a locally defined regional model for very rural counties
Discussion about resources needed to implement a mandatory deflection program
Any wholly new program should have thoughtful implementation timing and adequate funding is critical to success
The AOC Health and Human Services and Public Safety Steering Committee co-chairs and staff intend to continue this conversation at the Joint AOC Health and Human Services/Public Safety Steering Committee meeting on February 5.
Please reach out to staff or Co-Chairs Nafisa Fai (Washington County), Steve Kramer (Wasco County), Jeremy Gordon (Polk County), or Dave Henslee (Klamath County) with feedback to the four questions posed above.
Counties with existing LEAD or similar diversion programs are asked to provide budget information to AOC staff. It would be particularly helpful to gather data related to the staffing requirements and costs to implement these programs successfully.
Policy discussions aimed at furthering our state-local partnership for public health and safety will continue throughout 2024 during the monthly AOC Behavioral Health Summit meetings with the goals of replicating county solutions and preparing for the 2025 legislative session.
Jessica Pratt
Legislative Affairs Manager
Association of Oregon Counties
a: 1212 Court St NE, Salem, OR 97301
m: 503.515.6884