Here’s what leaders are saying in the debate on how best to deliver mental health care in Multnomah County and Oregon after a Portland man with a history of disturbing behavior drove a bomb-laden SUV into the Multnomah Athletic Club last weekend.
Some believe Multnomah County mental health workers failed to take advantage of newly loosened criteria under the state civil commitment law that lowered the bar to send people to a hospital for involuntary treatment.
Others point to the lack of intensive treatment available that could have offered needed support after Bruce Whitman’s two brief psychiatric hospitalizations…