The National Alliance on Mental Illness Southern Oregon (NAMI SO) will host a presentation by the Sheriff and Health & Human Services Departments of Marion County, as a continued effort to encourage diversion programs in Southern Oregon. Jail Commander Tad Larson (Institutions Division, Salem) and Ann-Marie Bandfield, MSW (Program Manager, Acute & Forensic Behavioral Health, Marion County Health & Human Services) will be traveling to Medford to deliver the presentation, which will be open to the public and will discuss their success with diversion and de-escalation through collaboration of the two departments. Marion County uses a combination of Mobile Crisis Response Teams (HHS staff riding along with officers), embedded HHS staff in the county jail and community outreach. These efforts began when Marion County was criticized for sending the second-highest number of people to the State Hospital for Aid & Assist. They have reversed that ranking and now send the least number.

The Marion County presentation will happen at 5pm on November 13th at the George Prescott Room at the Medford Police Department, 219 S. Ivy St. Presenters will include a Q&A session and are prepared to discuss their funding solutions.

NAMI SO wished to bring this presentation as continuation of the discussions that began after the CAHOOTS presentation in late September. It is NAMI’s hope that additional ideas can be learned from Marion County that might complement the information gathered from CAHOOTS, and they want to continue facilitating the ongoing efforts between Law Enforcement, local governing bodies, health providers and the communities they all serve.

In the US, over 2 million persons with serious mental illness are booked every year.  And in 44 out of 50 states, jails and prisons hold more mentally ill individuals than the state hospitals, making diversion out of jails and into treatment one of NAMI National’s – and Southern Oregon’s – key goals.