In 2017, Multnomah County hired a psychiatrist to lead its move to the downtown jail, applauded by disability rights advocates who said it would improve mental health care.
Five years later, this psychiatrist left. WW has learned. The position has disappeared from the budget documents. The county won’t say why.
It’s not a good situation, says Dave Boyer, managing attorney for Disability Rights Oregon, noting that jails are the largest mental health facility in the county. It just doesn’t make sense, he added.
The loss of health care leadership in Multnomah County jails is a recent trend. WW reported earlier this month that the facility’s three doctors resigned earlier this year, amid an unprecedented string of six inmate deaths.
Meanwhile, staff said, the prison had difficulty finding providers who could prescribe psychiatric medications, a difficult situation that a psychiatrist would certainly have helped alleviate.
Related: As inmates died, Multnomah County jails lost doctors
When asked why the psychiatrist position was eliminated, the county did not offer a clear answer. In a statement, the county said it now has psychiatric nurse practitioners available Monday through Friday and a contract with an Oregon Health & Science University fellowship program to make rounds once a week in the acute mental health unit.
OHSU refused to allow anyone to discuss conditions at the prison. In a statement, a university spokeswoman said it was following all laws and directed further questions to the county.
Advocates for the measure have long warned of inadequate health care in county jails. In 2017, Disability Rights Oregon released a report detailing a host of problems, including the overuse of solitary confinement, the systematic use of force against people with mental illness, and woefully inadequate health care.
The county took the findings seriously, and a DRO follow-up report in 2018 detailed the progress made. The county renovated its clinics and hired more health care staff, including a psychiatrist, who the nonprofit specifically singled out for making a significant difference in expanding access to psychiatric care in the jail.
According to budget documents, the psychiatrist was part of a team that monitored and treated the many mentally ill clients who were incarcerated.
That psychiatrist, Dr. Morgyn Beckman, was still in that position as of last year, according to a biography posted on a conference website. But a budget document says July no longer mentions her position on the mental health team at the downtown detention centers.
The county admitted to having difficulty hiring and retaining health care workers during the pandemic, citing a lack of telework opportunities at the jail.
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