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Sen. Ron Wyden promotes bill to address rise in mental health issues among children during pandemic

Register-Guard
Aug 31, 2021

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden held a public meeting with school and Lane County officials Monday to discuss his plans to create legislation that would improve access to mental health services, with an emphasis on children.

Wyden and others gathered at Churchill High School said the effects of distanced learning and the COVID-19 pandemic in general have led to an increase in mental health emergencies. At the meeting, Wyden outlined his plans to create a bipartisan bill addressing mental health this fall, along with Republican Sen. Mike Crapo from Idaho.

Wyden began by saying too many Oregon children have been dealing with increased mental health issues over the past year.

"I think we understand the reality of the last year, perhaps last year and a half has been devastating to physical health and mental health," Wyden said. "It is clear that going into the school year, too many Oregon kids are going to do a crisis point. They'll tell you that."

He cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found the proportion of mental health-related emergency visits among those ages 12 to 17 increased 31% from 2019 to 2020.

Along with listening to local officials about the extent of mental health challenges in school districts, Wyden said he is looking forward to working with Oregon communities to implement his CAHOOTS Act, which set aside $1 billion in Medicaid funding to help all states adopt mobile crisis response teams similar Eugene's, which can be dispatched when a person is experiencing a mental health emergency.

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"I would really encourage all of you to start thinking, working with your health people and law enforcement people about the kinds of proposals you want to give the state so that when the state goes for their portion of the billion dollars that's available, it'll make a difference," Wyden said.

Going into the 2021-22 school year, Karen Gaffney, executive director for Lane County Health and Human Services, said she also was concerned about an increase in anxiety and depression since the pandemic started.

Gaffney mentioned federal partnerships that could help fill in some of the gaps the county has, such as not having acute care beds for children during a mental health emergency.

"They have to go to the emergency room, and if there's a bed in Portland they go there, or they go home," Gaffney said.

Wyden plans to return to Churchill High School in a few weeks to hold another meeting with students to discuss mental health issues.

Going forward, interim 4J Superintendent Cydney Vandercar said she wants to focus on targeting students' mental health issues at a young age so fewer deal with them in middle and high school.

"Right now, we're in the middle of responding, but as we plan to be preemptive, I believe going forward we should really work at the elementary level," she said. "Then by middle or high school, they they gained internal ability to respond to situations with toolkits that we've given them, and know where to reach out for help."

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Louis Krauss covers breaking news for The Register-Guard. Contact him at lkrauss@registerguard.com or 541-521-2498, and follow him on Twitter @LouisKraussNews.

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