The undersigned support Governor Kate Brown's budget proposal to close the Oregon State Hospital at Junction City - not to save money for the state, but to redirect that same money from hospital care to community-based care.

People with mental illness, their friends, family and allies - including NAMI Oregon and Disability Rights Oregon - join hands to oppose Oregon State Hospital at Junction City. We know, firsthand, psychiatric hospitalization in Oregon is too often a result not of illness but of bad management, and of starving community-based care to ineffectiveness.

Thank you Governor Brown. It's hard to admit mistakes, but it's also the right thing to do.

Community mental health care can shine without hospital - op ed by Gary Crum, from the Eugene Register Guard, December 2016
With the current population of 81 patients, that’s a cost of $425,000 per patient per year. The state reports that there are more than 400 full-time employees at the hospital — a ratio of five employees to each patient.

Hospital Closing Would Accelerate State’s Direction on Mental Health - The Lund Report, December 2016
It’s unclear if the Legislature will actually approve the closure of the Junction City as the same forces that won $130 million to build it over the concerns of the mental health community will fight to save it. But it’s possible it could be used as a prison hospital while patients are treated in the community with funding from Medicaid through CCOs.

Does Oregon need the Junction City psychiatric hospital? - Eugene Register Guard, December 2016
“Strictly as a matter of dollars and cents, I’m not surprised that the state now finds it has an expensive institution that might become a white elephant in the modern world of mental health care." ~ Bob Joondeph, Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon

Junction City Fills Critical Role Over Objections of Chief Advocates - The Lund Report, April 2015
Most mental health advocates and legislators most versed on mental health policy opposed the construction of a second state mental hospital northwest of Eugene. But the new institution, now a year old, is opening a new wing to treat the backlog of patients who are improperly kept in hospital ERs because of the limited resources to treat people in their communities.

“Large environments are not conducive to good mental health care. In an ideal world, centered on recovery and good health care, we would have smaller facilities closer to the people being served.” ~ NAMI Oregon Executive Director Chris Bouneff, September 2015

Junction City hospital the worst way to treat mentally ill - op ed from The Mental Health Association of Portland, October 2011
We urge Gov. John Kitzhaber to withdraw his endorsement of this project’s construction, and to direct the project’s budget toward effective community-based treatment that will actually benefit us.