Gov. Tina Kotek has joined with hospitals, law enforcement and behavioral health advocates to back a legislative push to make it easier to hospitalize and forcibly treat Oregonians with severe mental illness. But mental health consumers and the nonprofit Disability Rights Oregon say it’s a bad idea.
Like similar laws in most states, Oregon’s statute allows a judge to confine and commit someone to treatment if their mental illness makes them an “imminent” danger to themself or others.
Experts say a series of Oregon court decisions have made it far harder to commit people. Backers of the bill say this means people who need care don’t get it, with potentially fatal consequences…