Providing shelter
Program adds space for clients needing acute psychiatric care
BY TIM CHRISTIE
The Register-Guard
Published: Jan. 16, 2010
It’s easy to miss the Royal Avenue Program, housed in a low-slung, nondescript building that once served as a roadside motel for motorists traveling Highway 99 back when it was the major north-south byway in Oregon.
For the past 22 years, the facility, operated by the nonprofit ShelterCare, has served as a refuge for the mentally ill, a place to find shelter, food and counseling. Now the program is undergoing a radical change in the way it serves the mentally ill, effectively doubling the number of beds available for people going through psychiatric crisis.
The facility has 24 beds, which historically have been evenly split between more stable long-term clients and short-term clients experiencing acute mental health crises. But now all 24 beds are being dedicated to serve clients in crisis.
The change was made at the request of the program’s community partners, including PeaceHealth, which operates the Johnson Unit, a secure mental health facility at Sacred Heart Medical Center, University District, and Lane County Mental Health, said Dean Schlecht, manager of the Royal Avenue Program.
photo by Kevin Clarke - RG
ShelterCare’s Royal Avenue Program Manager Dean Schlecht (left) and ShelterCare development associate Brad Bassi walk through a common area at the Highway 99 complex.
The program has 24 beds that will now all be dedicated for people in acute crisis, taking pressure off other mental health facilities.
Those partners “have long felt there was a much greater need for crisis beds than our 12 beds have been able to meet,” he said. “It takes pressure off the ER, it takes pressure off the Johnson Unit and it takes pressure off other parts of the system,” said Dan Willis, a mental health specialist who serves as Lane County Mental Health’s liaison to the Royal Avenue Program. When Royal Avenue is full, people are sent to the Johnson Unit, which provides a higher level of care than needed for some patients, or they’re sent home or back on the streets, Schlecht said. “The result is individuals coming back in crisis a few days later,” he said.
photo by Kevin Clarke - RG
Dean Schlecht
Janet Perez, supervisor of crisis services for Sacred Heart’s emergency departments, said she welcomed the change at the Royal Avenue Program. “Many times we have not been able to place folks there because there’s not enough beds,” she said.
Together, the two Sacred Heart hospitals serve about 300 patients each month who are experiencing a mental health crisis, she said. More than 80 percent of those show up at the University District ER. In a typical scenario, a person with an existing psychiatric condition such as bipolar disorder or major depression will have a life crisis, or will stop taking their medications, and as a result “find themselves in significant distress” that might include suicidal thoughts, Schlecht said. At the Royal Avenue Program, clients get a bed, three meals a day, clothing and crisis counseling. About half the clients are homeless. The program serves about 700 people each year. To support the transition to 24 crisis beds, the Royal Avenue Program has hired an additional staff person, and may hire more people if enough clients have Medicaid, Schlecht said. To make the new program work, about 40 percent of clients need to be on Medicaid, the federal-state program that helps pay the health care of poor people. “If we don’t get that, we’ll be in a bit of a fix,” he said. “We are informing our partners that we have new beds and we’re open and ready to receive people. “As people get used to the fact we’re not running full anymore, we’ll be getting more referrals.”
The program recently completed a $220,000, 1,500-square-foot wing of the facility that includes a common room, two counseling rooms, a laundry and a bathroom. The addition was funded primarily with Community Development Block Grants through the city of Eugene.
