In 2024 the DOJ clarified for OHA advisory groups the limits of their statutory authority. As a result, the Alliance no longer sponsors legislation but will continue to make recommendations to OHA regarding policy and funding priorities.
SB 52
Directs Department of Education to develop and implement statewide education plan for students who identify as LGBTQ2SIA+.
The Department of Education shall develop and implement a statewide education plan for plan students who identify as LGBTQ2SIA+.
The plan developed and implemented under this section must provide strategies to:
(a) Address the disproportionate rate of disciplinary incidents involving plan students as compared to all students in the education system;
(b) Increase parental engagement in the education of plan students;
(c) Increase the engagement of plan students in educational activities before and after
regular school hours;
(d) Increase early childhood education and kindergarten readiness for plan students;
(e) Improve literacy and numeracy levels among plan students between kindergarten and grade three;
(f) Support plan student transitions to middle school and through the middle school and high school grades to maintain and improve academic performance;
(g) Support culturally responsive pedagogy and practices from early childhood through post-secondary education;
(h) Support the development of culturally responsive curricula from early childhood through post-secondary education;
(i) Increase attendance of plan students in early childhood programs through postsecondary and professional certification programs; and
(j) Increase attendance of plan students in four-year post-secondary institutions of education
SB 563
Modifies laws relating to youth suicide intervention and prevention to include children 5 to 10 years of age.
The Youth Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan originally covered ages 10-24. Due to passage of this legislation, the age range was lowered to include ages 5-25 allowing for more upstream prevention work to be done.
HB 2315
Requires behavioral health providers to take continuing education units (CEUs) in suicide risk assessment, treatment, and management.
This bill requires that the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) a board shall require a licensee regulated by the authority or the
board to complete two hours every two years or three hours every three years of continuing education related to suicide risk assessment, treatment and management and report to the authority or the board the licensee’s completion of the continuing education described.
OHA and a board shall approve continuing education opportunities that are applicable and relevant to the licensees regulated by the authority or the board. A board may encourage a licensee regulated by the board to complete continuing education opportunities recommended by the authority.
HB 2417
Expands crisis stabilization services.
Expands crisis stabilization services, including crisis stabilization centers meeting criteria adopted by Oregon Health Authority by rule, short-term respite facilities, peer respite centers, behavioral health urgent care walk-in centers and crisis hotline center. Appropriates moneys from General Fund to authority to provide funding to county community mental health programs to establish and maintain mobile crisis intervention teams. Requires authority, no later than January 1, 2022, to report to interim committees of Legislative Assembly related to mental or behavioral health, recommendations on policies and legislative changes, if any, needed to implement National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 and establish statewide coordinated crisis services system. Specifies information that must be included in report. Limits liability of 9-8-8 coordinated crisis services system to conduct that is willful or wanton. Prohibits blocking delivery or forwarding to public safety answering point of 9-8-8 coordinated crisis services system information. Makes number identifications and subscriber information received by 9-8-8 coordinated crisis services system confidential and not subject to public disclosure unless specified criteria are met.
Directs medical examiner or medical-legal death investigator to report deaths of decedents 24 years of age or younger to local mental health authority there is reasonable belief that the manner of death was suicide.
This bill amends SB 561 by adding the following elements.
The Oregon Health Authority shall develop a plan for communication among local mental health authorities and local systems to improve notifications and information-sharing when a death that is suspected to be a suicide involves an individual who is 24 years of age or younger. The plan must address community suicide response and post-intervention efforts to address loss and the potential of contagion risk. The following entities may be involved in developing and implementing the plan:
(a) Public school districts;
(b) Public universities listed in ORS 352.002, if the death involves an individual who is 24 years of age or younger;
(c) Private post-secondary institutions of education, if the death involves an individual who is 24 years of age or younger; and
(d) Any facility that provides services or resources to runaway or homeless youth.
Within seven days after a death that is suspected to be a suicide of an individual 24 years of age or younger, the local mental health authority in the area where the suicide occurred shall inform the Oregon Health Authority, in a manner and in a format to be determined by the authority, of activities implemented to support local entities and individuals affected by the suicide and to prevent the risk of contagion.
Addresses parental notification when a mental health care providers assesses a minor to be at imminent risk of a suicide attempt
A mental health care provider that is providing services to a minor pursuant to ORS 109.675 may disclose relevant health information about the minor without the minor’s consent as provided in ORS 109.675 (2).
If the minor’s condition has deteriorated or the risk of a suicide attempt has become such that inpatient treatment is necessary, or if the minor’s condition requires detoxification in a residential or acute care facility, the minor’s mental health care provider may disclose the relevant information regarding the minor’s diagnosis and treatment to the minor’s parent or legal guardian to the extent the mental health care provider determines the disclosure is clinically appropriate and will serve the best interests of the minor’s treatment.
If the mental health care provider assesses the minor to be at serious and imminent risk of a suicide attempt but inpatient treatment is not necessary or practicable:
(A) The mental health care provider shall disclose relevant information about the minor to and engage in safety planning with the minor’s parent, legal guardian or other individuals the provider reasonably believes may be able to prevent or lessen the minor’s risk of a suicide attempt.
(B) The mental health care professional may disclose relevant information regarding the minor’s treatment and diagnosis that the mental health care professional determines is necessary to further the minor’s treatment to those organizations, including appropriate schools and social service entities, that the mental health care provider reasonably believes will provide treatment support to the minor to the extent the mental health care provider determines necessary.
If a mental health care provider has provided the minor with the opportunity to object to the disclosure and the minor has not expressed an objection, the mental health care provider may disclose information related to the minor’s treatment and diagnosis to individuals, including the minor’s parent or legal guardian, and organizations when the information directly relates to the individual’s or organization’s involvement in the minor’s treatment.
Exceptions to this notification include when a mental health care provider:
(a) Reasonably believes the individual has abused or neglected the minor or subjected the minor to domestic violence or may abuse or neglect the minor or subject the minor to domestic violence;
(b) Reasonably believes disclosure of the minor’s information to the individual could endanger the minor; or
(c) Determines that it is not in the minor’s best interest to disclose the information to
the individual.