In the annual Eugene Weekly Best of 2020, CAHOOTS won best non-profit and best service for the homeless. Ebony Morgan, program coordinator and RN won best healthcare worker. Thank you Eugene, we are humbled as ever. Let’s keep our hearts open and these vans rolling.
A few weeks ago, Jose Soto-Gates, White Bird Clinic’s Fundraiser, was contacted by a group of students involved with Greek life on the UO campus wanted to raise money for White Bird in memory of their dear friend, Anthony Laveroni. Together, they created a fundraising page to support mental health services and invite contributions from the wider community.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity will be hosting a Suicide Prevention Week, where they will be distributing the White Bird Help Book to all the fraternity’s and Sorority’s on campus to promote the 24 hour WB Crisis line services as well to highlight the help book as a community resource.
White Bird Medical Clinic has partnered with Kaiser Permanente to develop a safe, COVID-19 screening and testing center for Lane County’s unhoused populations. The screening center will be located in White Bird’s primary care walk-in clinic, with construction planned to start February 2021. The new primary care walk-in clinic will offer on-demand acute care to our community’s most vulnerable residents. Without access to walk-in primary care, patients utilize emergency room treatment for acute but not emergent problems, reducing the availability of treatment for life-threatening emergencies.
In addition, treatment at an emergency room is at least five times more costly than a primary care encounter. With ambulance transport, emergency treatment becomes an order of magnitude more expensive than primary care. These dramatically increased costs, along with reduced availability of treatment for life-threatening emergencies, constitute a crisis for our community and the institutions that provide and fund health care. With your help we will continue preventing unnecessary emergency room treatment and subsequent hospital admissions and preserve healthcare system capacity essential for accommodating an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
As winter approaches, Kaiser Permanente’s $100,000 award will help White Bird construct a separate entrance to their Eugene clinic on Mill Street and add negative-pressure exam rooms for safe COVID-19 symptom monitoring. https://t.co/SLjcTDHR4l
— White Bird Clinic (@WhiteBirdClinic) November 14, 2020
When complete, the new facility will allow White Bird to quickly identify and respond to emerging health care needs, preventing the infection and spread of COVID-19 in people experiencing homelessness through symptom monitoring, screening, and testing. It will also enhance White Bird’s work coordinating care for the local population of unhoused individuals, strengthen partnerships with referring agencies and organizations, and support coordinating community efforts to suppress COVID-19. An additional benefit will be the capacity to conduct point of care testing for dental clinic patients, in order to keep dental staff safe and improve access to oral health care.
Also See:
White Bird Clinic to construct screening and testing center for unhoused – Register-Guard, November 2020
Sign up now to receive emergency notifications via text message, phone call or email.
Lane County is able to send you emergency alerts via text message, email, pager, or voice call (in extreme cases), based on your preferences. It is important that they collect this contact information because many households no longer utilize traditional land-based telephone lines.
This service, powered by AlertSense, allows fire, police and other emergency response agencies to issue emergency alerts to warn citizens of events such as severe weather, fire, flooding, hazardous materials, need for immediate evacuation, civil danger, local area emergencies, and missing persons.
SIGN UP today and share the types of alerts and notifications that you would like to receive, as well as your contact information and preferences.
Enter your PHYSICAL address and zipcode to receive advanced warning of severe weather or emergencies that directly impact the area in which you live or work. In the event of a life-threatening emergency, alerts will be delivered to you through priority channels including phone calls and/or priority text messages. Non-emergency notifications are received through text and email.
Emergency voice alerts sent from the County will come through with the following CallerID displayed: (541) 972-3177. If you would like to hear the last message repeated, simply dial the CallerID number.
These alerts are provided free of charge, however standard text messaging rates and other charges may apply.
‘Healing House” is an excerpt from “FRONTLINE,” a 40,000-word original work of creative nonfiction on White Bird Clinic’s crisis intervention team, published in 1994 by Mark H. Massé, who received his master’s degree with honors from the School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) at the University of Oregon in 1994. After serving on the SOJC faculty, he spent 22 years in the Department of Journalism at Ball State University, retiring in 2018 as professor emeritus.
Copyright (1994) by Mark H. Massé. All rights reserved.
“HEALING HOUSE”
Twenty-some years ago, White Bird Clinic was known as a glorified crash pad for teenagers who were hallucinating on psychedelic drugs. The clinic, which was founded as a counterculture collective in 1970, was viewed with suspicion and concern by the Eugene establishment. People criticized its perceived. “overly permissive attitude” toward drug use. Some said White Bird was harboring criminals and runaways.
The police were angry about the clinic’s confidentiality agreements with clients whom the cops saw as drug-dealing lowlifes. A typical front-desk encounter at White Bird would go something like this:
“You can’t or won’t tell me if this guy hangs out here?” the police officer asks the long-haired receptionist. “Both,” the White Birder replies, smugly.
Today, White Bird Clinic’s confrontational image has mellowed, but it has retained its collective/communal organizational structure and its identity as a grass-roots human services and community advocacy organization. White Bird’s mission: to serve the people nobody else wants to deal with, the folks who fall between the cracks. Each year, the clinic responds to the medical, mental health, and social service needs of thousands of low-income, alienated, abandoned, and disenfranchised clients in Lane County.
Through the decades, the once-controversial clinic has transformed itself, becoming more establishment oriented than anyone could have imagined back in the 1970s. White Bird Clinic now has a million-dollar annual operating budget and is involved in cooperative programs with Sacred Heart Hospital, Lane, County Mental Health Services, and the Eugene Police Department, plus many other public- and private-sector organizations. The clinic’s comprehensive operations include medical and dental services, 24-hour crisis intervention, mental health screening and evaluation programs, AIDS testing, drug treatment services, and extensive information and referral services.
One innovative cooperative venture is C.A.H.O.O.T.S. (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), a result of a 1989 partnership between White Bird Clinic and Eugene’s public safety system. Funded by the city of Eugene, the C.A.H.O.O.T.S. program uses a van that is radio-dispatched through the 911 system. A two-person team—a White Bird crisis worker and a trained medic—responds to calls dealing with drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, emotional crises, and family disputes that pose a small risk of violence.
Over the years, White Bird Clinic’s clientele has also changed, becoming more representative of the mainstream community. The clinic’s crisis intervention team frequently handles calls from area residents of all ages who have questions about personal or family relationships, as well as more serious concerns such as suicide prevention, domestic abuse, or chemical dependency issues. Case in point: Recently, an 11-year-old girl from a middle-class suburb, called the clinic because her parents were going through a divorce, but they weren’t including their daughter in any discussions. The girl was referred to White Bird by a telephone operator. She later talked with a White Bird counselor about what was happening to her and her family.
“Maybe we’re more reputable today than we think we are,” says Bob Dritz, White Bird Clinic’s coordinator, as he reflects on the clinic’s rocky-road history over the last 25 years. It is as if White Bird Clinic has a Protean identity—it continues to evolve and reinvent itself in response to changes in the outside world. Dritz relishes his role as resident historian of White Bird Clinic.
With his mop of black hair, tinted aviator-style glasses, and wide-brimmed straw hat, his rag-tag wardrobe, and laid-back crash-pad drawl, Dritz looks and sounds more like a zoned-out, middle-aged hipster than a keen-minded financial whiz who helped guide the clinic down the path to respectability. At the start of each season’s new-volunteer orientation session at White Bird, 20 individuals, who have already been screened by a clinic trainer, sit on the floor in the community room and await their introduction to the organization. Clinic coordinator Dritz sits among the newcomers like a wise tribal chief and recites the oft-told tale of White Bird Clinic.
The history of the clinic dates back to the late 1960s when the drug problem officially hit Eugene, Oregon. Disenchanted, angry, and rebellious youths roamed the streets of this bucolic city nestled in the heart of the lush Willamette Valley in western Oregon. These “hippies,” who had rejected authority and conventional lifestyles, were turning on and tuning in to a new consciousness. They were experimenting with hallucinogens, amphetamines, barbiturates, and just about any other drug they could get their hands on. LSD—”acid”—was the drug of choice for this psychedelic generation who were “tripping” to pursue psychic exploration, achieve satori (enlightenment), or get their kicks on mind-bending, reality-twisting roller-coaster rides.
The problem was that the ticket to nirvana often came at a high price. Young drug users were overdosing, taking bad trips (“bummers”) and “freaking out.” Having severed their ties with straight society, many of the drug-taking youth were without food, shelter, or proper medical care.
In the late sixties, the medical establishment in Eugene and everywhere else didn’t know how to deal with the drug problem. The emergency room doctors were, in the words of one historical account, “flying by the seat of their pants” when treating patients on bad acid trips, injecting them with high doses of phenothiazine tranquilizers, usually 50 mg of Thorazine. Thorazine was seen as a means of normalizing and sedating patients with psychotic or schizophrenic behavior, which is how the ER doctors viewed drug overdoses. The problem was that phenothiazines packed some pretty heavy side effects. A disoriented teenager on a bad trip who came into an emergency room could very well leave in worse shape than when he or she arrived—shot full of Thorazine and now suffering from dizziness, blurred vision, muscle spasms, or tremors.
Out of the purple haze that had descended on Eugene, stepped two 25-year-old doctoral students in psychology from the University of Oregon. Dennis Ekanger and Frank Lemons looked like characters from the movie “M.A.S.H:” Here’s Ekanger—a Radar O’Reilly, with more hair. There’s Lemons, a Hawkeye Pierce/Donald Sutherland stand-in, with more hair and a beard, of course.
Ekanger knew firsthand about the problems of drug abuse from his days as a resident hall counselor at the University of Oregon and in his work as a juvenile counselor for the county. The rap on the street was that the chain-smoking, deep-voiced Ekanger was an empathetic guy who could help you cool down and sort things out. Ekanger was living in an old Victorian-style house on 20th Avenue and Lincoln in Eugene’s “student ghetto.” His reputation grew to the point where students and drifters, Vietnam vets and runaways would be hanging out on his doorstep every day wanting to rap about their mixed-up lives.
Like Dennis Ekanger, Frank Lemon had a following. For months, he had been counseling young people in crisis. Lemons’ reputation was enhanced by his counterculture connections. He had many friends living in a large commune on a 200-plus acre farm outside of town. The members of the commune would later form the core group of White Bird’s supervisors and full-time volunteers in the clinic’s early years.
In 1969, Ekanger and Lemons enlisted the support of Dr. Leonard Jacobson, a successful and respected surgeon and past president of the county’s medical society. Dr. Jacobson had been outspoken about the need for new approaches to the drug crisis. He provided the legitimacy and the established community contacts that Ekanger and Lemons lacked.
The three men conceived of a psycho-social-medical approach (influenced by such operations as the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco) and advanced the idea of a community free clinic and counseling/drug education center, a sanctuary to deal with people’s drug-related problems. More than 100 community leaders were involved in the crafting of the proposal for a clinic to be known officially as White Bird Sociomedical Aid Station, Inc. 
Ekanger and Lemons each put up $250 to incorporate the clinic and organized a board of directors. The two served as the clinic’s co-directors. After securing grants from the city ($4,800) and state ($7,500), plus community donations, White Bird Clinic started operating on February 22, 1970, in a rented house at 837 Lincoln Street. Furniture was donated by local churches. Area hospitals contributed medical equipment and supplies. In the first few weeks, more than 150 doctors and nurses, plus dozens of attorneys, social workers, and educators donated their time and services to get the clinic up and running. After only one month, the clinic was being used as a field site for graduate students in counseling. Soon, more than 100 -university students were clinic volunteers.
In October 1971, the clinic purchased adjacent houses at 323 and 341 E. 12th Avenue for $67,500. The “annex” at 323 E. 12th housed the medical clinic and drug detox and drug education services. The clinic’s main building at 341 E. 12th was headquarters for crisis intervention, counseling, legal services, and an expanding list of client advocacy and referral programs.
The house at 341 E. 12th Avenue had once been the residence of a prominent physician who was one of the founders of the Eugene Clinic. The house was built for $4,000 in 1917 according to the specifications of Dr. Philip Bartle, a specialist in internal medicine who ran his medical practice on the main floor of the 3,500-square-foot, two-story home where he lived with his -wife and two children.
According to The History of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, published in 1927, Philip Bartle was a perfectionist, “a man among men, possessing a strong and forceful personality.” Bartle was committed to working on behalf of the public welfare for the “betterment of the community along all legitimate lines.” In the 1920s, he helped establish the Eugene Hospital and Clinic, at the time one of only two standardized hospitals in Oregon outside of Portland.
Bartle’s home was designed in the popular craftsman style of his day. This elaborate “bungalow-type” of architecture featured large porches with truncated pillars or columns, low-pitched gable-styled roofs with prominent gabled dormers, and multi-paned windows of varying shapes and sizes. The front room had extensive wood detailing—columns, beams, paneling, and window casements. Two maple window seats flanked the first-floor mantel and fireplace.
Outside, near the top of the front of the house was a decorative swastika. It was removed during World War II. By then, Dr. Bartle had moved, and the house was sold to his son, William and his wife, Mildred. During the late 1930s, several rooms were rented to University of Oregon students, a practice that continued until 1971 when Mildred Bartle sold the house to White Bird Clinic.
The clinic’s operations in the 1970s were a lot shakier than the sturdy structure in which they were housed. By 1972, both Dennis Ekanger and Frank Lemons had resigned. Several White Birders were arrested that year on drug charges; they were later acquitted. In October 1972, the clinic’s medical area was temporarily closed because of lack of supplies, lack of money, and lack of support from the Eugene medical community. The county’s medical society came forward to assist the clinic but told White Bird that it had to clean up its act, raise its standards, and be willing to accept outside advice on all medical matters.
Through all the clinic’s hassles in-the early years, a core of dedicated White Birders served the cause. They staffed the clinic’s drug detox program, continued round-the-clock crisis intervention services, and ran an ambitious drug education program in the community—giving frank talks to area schools, church groups, and civic organizations. They published a “Drug Education Primer,” which was distributed throughout Eugene, and they staged street “guerrilla” theater productions to raise community awareness and show the establishment where the cracks in the medical and mental health systems were.
White Bird’s topsy-turvy operations continued until the late 1970s. A soft-spoken transplanted New Yorker named Bob Dritz arrived in 1978. He became the clinic’s fiscal officer and ushered in a period of maturity and relative calm. In another life, Dritz could have been a CEO of a start-up company and made a small fortune.
But he used his expertise in fiscal planning and budget management to secure the future of White Bird, not make himself rich. like so many others of his generation, Dritz rejected conventional middle-class values and chose a life of community service and social activism. For his work on behalf of the clinic, Dritz gained near-legendary status. He was proclaimed the “financial savior” of the White Bird Clinic.
In July 1982, Bob Dritz assumed the role of clinic coordinator. At this point, the clinic was being recognized as a legitimate and vital link in the county’s health care system. It had an established crisis counselor training program (the Willamette School of Human Services) licensed by the state of Oregon. The clinic also had a diversified base of funding from local, county, state, and federal grants. By the end of the decade, Dritz would oversee a major expansion and diversification of clinic services.
Today, Bob Dritz talks about how the clinic continues to surprise its critics and leverage its clout as an alternative human service agency.
“We’re willing to take on assignments that no other organization wants or has the ability to perform,” Dritz says, sitting in his office on the second floor of the house with the prominent blue, white and gold bird-in-flight sign hanging above its wide front porch. Throughout its colorful history, the distinctive residence at 341 E. 12th Avenue has undergone many changes and transformations. But after 77 years, it remains a healing house for people in need in Lane County.
Massé has authored three books of literary journalism (“Vietnam Warrior Voices,” “Trauma Journalism” and “Inspired to Serve.”) He is also a novelist, whose latest work, “Honor House,” will be published on Amazon.com in summer 2020. For more information, visit: http://www.markmasse.com
31 years ago the City of Eugene, Oregon developed an innovative community-based public safety system to provide mental health first response for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. White Bird Clinic launched CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) as a community policing initiative in 1989.
The CAHOOTS model has been in the spotlight recently as our nation struggles to reimagine public safety. The program mobilizes two-person teams consisting of a medic (a nurse, paramedic, or EMT) and a crisis worker who has substantial training and experience in the mental health field. The CAHOOTS teams deal with a wide range of mental health-related crises, including conflict resolution, welfare checks, substance abuse, suicide threats, and more, relying on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction techniques. CAHOOTS staff are not law enforcement officers and do not carry weapons; their training and experience are the tools they use to ensure a non-violent resolution of crisis situations. They also handle non-emergent medical issues, avoiding costly ambulance transport and emergency room treatment.
A November 2016 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine estimated that 20% to 50% of fatal encounters with law enforcement involved an individual with a mental illness. The CAHOOTS model demonstrates that these fatal encounters are not inevitable. Last year, out of a total of roughly 24,000 CAHOOTS calls, police backup was requested only 150 times.
The cost savings are considerable. The CAHOOTS program budget is about $2.1 million annually, while the combined annual budgets for the Eugene and Springfield police departments are $90 million. In 2017, the CAHOOTS teams answered 17% of the Eugene Police Department’s overall call volume. The program saves the city of Eugene an estimated $8.5 million in public safety spending annually.
CAHOOTS calls come to Eugene’s 911 system or the police non-emergency number. Dispatchers are trained to recognize non-violent situations with a behavioral health component and route those calls to CAHOOTS. A team will respond, assess the situation and provide immediate stabilization in case of urgent medical need or psychological crisis, assessment, information, referral, advocacy, and, when warranted, transportation to the next step in treatment.
White Bird’s CAHOOTS provides consulting and strategic guidance to communities across the nation that are seeking to replicate CAHOOTS’ model. Contact us if you are interested in our consultation services program.
White Bird will be participating in the “Only Way Forward” webinar series examining the impacts of Canada’s existing criminal justice system, possible alternatives, and next steps on November 12, 4-6 pm PST. Tim Black joins a panel discussion on alternative forms of policing and prisons that have been successful.
What are they and why do they work?
Tim Black, White Bird Clinic
Tim Black is the Director of Consulting at White Bird Clinic. With a background in runaway and homeless youth, harm reduction, and street outreach, he began working for CAHOOTS as a Crisis Intervention Worker in 2010, before moving into an administrative role as the CAHOOTS Operations Coordinator.
His work with White Bird and CAHOOTS has put him in touch with cities across North America looking to implement services based on the CAHOOTS model of behavioral health first response. Programs based on the CAHOOTS model have been implemented in Olympia, Washington, and Denver, Colorado. In addition to his work with White Bird Clinic, Tim also serves as the Vice President of the Board of Directors for Eugene’s Community Supported Shelters.
Judy Cameron, Mental Health Counsellor
Judy Cameron is a member of Fort Albany First Nation and is currently living in Thunder Bay, ON. She is a mother of two and grandmother of 4 with 35 years of experience working with individuals and families in Addictions, Advocacy and Child Protection Services in a variety of settings throughout Northern Ontario. She was also a part time instructor at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, teaching classes in the Native Child and Family Worker and the Community Aboriginal Advocacy programs – the vast majority of my work has been with Indigenous children, families and communities.
Despite retiring in 2011, Judy is currently working as a mental health counsellor in Wapekeka First Nation.
“I am honoured to be a part of the Only Way Forward initiative and hope that our dialogue will bring about some meaningful change in Canadian society for the betterment of all peoples.”
Rick Kelly, Just Us : A Centre for Restorative Practices
Rick Kelly lives, as a visitor, on the traditional lands of the Anishnaabeg people. He was first introduced to the restorative model thru an indigenous lens. He has been trained by a Buddhist, rogue teacher, police officer, pastor from youth detention and Kay Pranis at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CMU).
He has an MA in Restorative Practices, a BA in philosophy which he was told would doom him to a short and dead-end career, and an advanced diploma in youth work. Rick works to demonstrably unhook form the legacy of the predominant justice system in order to build ecosystems that are just and equitable. This is a continuous and evolving process of understanding and development.
A birth certificate is an important legal document. It is needed to apply for other forms of identification (such as a driver’s license, Social Security card, or state ID card) that you need in order to:
Starting July 1, 2018, individuals who are homeless can come to White Bird to get help ordering their Oregon birth certificate free of charge. We will
You will need to mail your order form, check, documentation, and completed application to Oregon Vital Records. Vital Records will mail your birth certificate to you in care of the address on the order form.
For more information, please contact NEST at 541-342-1295 or drop in Tuesday through Thursday 9:30am to 12:30pm. Please check in first at 341 E 12th Ave.
Can I get my birth certificate for free if I was born in another state?
This program is for persons born in Oregon. Check with the state where you were born to see if they offer free birth certificates to persons who are homeless.
Do I have to provide proof of identity?
Yes. A list of acceptable proofs of identity is on the Oregon Vital Records website. If you don’t have acceptable proofs of identity, we will help you work with Oregon Vital Records to determine what information is needed to release your birth certificate.
Can I get free birth certificates for my family?
No. The grant program was established for individuals who are homeless to get their own birth certificate free of charge. This grant program does not provide funds to get family members’ birth certificates.
Where will my birth certificate be mailed?
Your birth certificate will be mailed to the address on your order form. The envelope will be addressed to you since it is your birth certificate.
Will I be able to use the birth certificate to get other documents such as an Oregon identification card or driver’s license?
Yes. A birth certificate is a legal document used to establish identity. It shows who you are, and when and where you were born. Your birth certificate is a legal document and is confidential. Be sure to keep it in a safe place.
For more information, please contact NEST at 541-342-1295 or drop in Tuesday through Thursday 9:30am to 12:30pm. Please check in first at 341 E 12th Ave.
Community support has allowed White Bird to care for the most vulnerable among us for decades. We’re grateful for all we’ve accomplished together. In order to ensure that we’re working in alignment, we request that folks get in touch with us when planning anything to support White Bird, such as events or fundraisers. We’ll be happy to share ideas or lend a hand.
Please contact us at fundraising@whitebirdclinic.org or call (541) 345-7641. Thanks again, we couldn’t have done this without your help!
Voters must provide a residence address on the voter registration form, but this address may be any definable location in the county that describes their physical location. This could be the White Bird’s Front Rooms program (must be a registered client), a shelter, park, motor home, or other identifiable location. The mailing address of a person who is homeless or who resides where mail service is unavailable can also be the office of the county clerk:
c/o Lane County Clerk
275 W. 10th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97401
To register to vote in Oregon, you must be:
If you are not yet 18 years of age, you will not receive a ballot until an election occurs on or after your 18th birthday.
Voter registration in Oregon is available online and at the county elections office. To register to vote online you will need an Oregon driver’s license, permit or ID card number issued by the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division (DMV). If you do not have an Oregon driver’s license, permit or ID card, you can still use the online voter registration application. The information you enter will display on a voter registration card (PDF document) that you will need to print, sign and deliver to the county elections office to complete your registration.
Some may not want to register to vote because they don’t feel safe disclosing their home address.
Under certain circumstances, a voter can register and vote while maintaining their privacy. To maintain privacy, complete the exemption form: 
Application to Exempt Residence Address from Disclosure. Return it to Lane County Clerk at 275 W. 10th Ave., Eugene or contact elections@co.lane.or.us for more information.
If you wish to register in a language other than English, please select your language below.
Remember to register to vote! The registration deadline for Oregonians is Tuesday, Oct. 13th. https://t.co/QxhqipJyAN pic.twitter.com/nlffp0lCmF
— KLCC (@KLCCEugeneOR) October 12, 2020
If you are already registered or think you might be registered to vote, use My Vote to:
A federal emergency declaration on Sept. 15 gives all Oregon residents the right to sign up for coverage on the insurance marketplace through a special enrollment period. Read more…
Oregon is currently facing far more evacuations and displacements than recorded history has shown. As such, many Oregonians applying for coverage through the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace and Medicare plans must take note of how to accurately report their address on the application.
It is important for those displaced by wildfires to be aware of how and where they may retrieve their mail. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has issued information about relocated operations due to wildfires.
Community Supported Shelter’s hygiene station is grouped with a Microsite of six Conestoga Huts occupied by people all working toward a higher quality of life for themselves. Three of the seven residents are paid, part-time employees helping with showers and meals.
At this point, the ReBoot Station is open for three hours per day, three days a week and provides an average of 50 to 70 showers per week
Here’s how it all works in a nutshell:
Up to eight people wishing to use the shower wait under a 200-square foot canopy tent outside the hygiene station. There are eight chairs spaced roughly six feet apart. Four people are admitted into the station at a time.
After being admitted, a guest washes their hands and checks in. They can get hygiene supplies (razors, feminine hygiene products, toothpaste & brushes, etc.) or new underwear or socks to go along with getting clean.
While people wait at a tent inside the station for a shower (with four socially distanced chairs), they receive a warm nutritious meal and can go through the donated clothes.
White Bird Clinic’s 24/7 Crisis Services program is available 24/7 for Lane County residents. Trained counselors have a deep ability to empathize with clients, as well as extensive knowledge of local resources that are appropriate to provide ongoing care. https://whitebirdclinic.org/crisis
The Oregon Behavioral Health Support Line is a free and confidential resource for all Oregonians who are looking for emotional support. Call 1-800-923-HELP (4357). You do not need to be in mental health crisis to call this line. If you need or want help beyond what the line can provide, you will be connected to those services. This can include community-based services such as housing, food assistance or clinical services. Certified interpreters are also available for those who speak a language other than English. Through this number, you can also connect with Lines for Life (linesforlife.org), a suicide prevention organization with specific resources for youth, military personnel and their families, and those affected by substance abuse problems.
SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Helpline provides 24/7, 365-day-a-year crisis counseling and support to people experiencing emotional distress related to natural or human-caused disasters. Call SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 to speak to a trained crisis counselor.
15th Night’s Crisis Line at 541-246-4046 assists in locating and leveraging existing community resources in order to help a youth who has run away or is currently experiencing homelessness to meet their needs. https://www.15thnight.org/get-help-now
The Child Center’s Crisis Response Program is available 24/7 at 1-888-989-9990 for families with children & youth experiencing mental or behavioral health crises in Lane Cty. https://www.thechildcenter.org/press-releases/
Alternatives To Calling 911 https://whitebirdclinic.org/resources/emergency-crisis-lines/
Are you looking for CAHOOTS? To access CAHOOTS services, call police non-emergency numbers:
Are you looking for our Crisis line? Contact us at 541-687-4000 or 1-800-422-7558.
White Bird Clinic has published a human services resource guide called the “Help Book” since the 1980’s. It contains a comprehensive listing of resources of people seeking health and housing resources, financial assistance, shelter, food pantries and meal sites, and help to meet other basic needs. It helps people navigate the system.
This year, the publication has been updated and printed as booklets. We are able to distribute them free of charge thanks to contributions from Lane County Health and Human Services, the City of Eugene, Sponsors, Community Supported Shelter, HIV Alliance, and Eugene Mennonite Church. Download The Little Help Book (PDF 630 KB)
Free Little Help Book provides a large amount of resources https://t.co/K3uRASy0wG
— White Bird Clinic (@WhiteBirdClinic) February 15, 2020
We are still accepting orders for the 2018 edition of the provider edition of the Help Book with binders or as inserts. Contact us for details.
Around 30 years ago, a town in Oregon retrofitted an old van, staffed it with young medics and mental health counselors and sent them out to respond to the kinds of 911 calls that wouldn’t necessarily require police intervention.
Does death make you uncomfortable & you prefer to avoid the topic altogether?
Are you thinking more about death because of Covid-19?
Are you leaving loved ones unprepared to make decisions by not discussing your end of life preferences?
If you answered YES to any of the above questions, please join us for this free 4-week online discussion group focusing on the 4 things to do before you die on Fridays, October 16 – November 6, 2020 from 1 – 2:30 PM online.
To register, please email amymay@whitebirdclinic.org
Supported in part by a grant from Hearts for Hospice.
White Bird Clinic is always looking for motivated individuals to join their Board of Directors. It is our hope these individuals are representative of our community and/or clients. We are committed to recruiting members of the BIPOC community to expand the voices at our table.
Do you have a strong background in finance, communications, community outreach, fundraising, and/or professional development? Applicants could also have ties to medical, dental, and substance abuse treatment, or the homeless issues in this community, as those are areas in which that White Bird specializes. All applicants should be familiar with non-profit governance.
It is our hope that applicants are enthusiastic and passionate to work in a consensus-based environment and approaching challenging conversations with a sense of joy.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden announced plans to introduce a bill in the U.S. Senate aimed at bringing CAHOOTS response model mental health services to cities and towns across the nation through increased Medicaid funding.
“It’s long past time to re-imagine policing in ways that reduce violence and structural racism, and health care can play a key role in that effort,” Wyden said. “Oregon has a proven model in the CAHOOTS program, and I want other states and communities to have federal resources to pursue similar approaches. Americans struggling with mental illness don’t always require law enforcement to be dispatched when they are experiencing a crisis – CAHOOTS is proof positive there is another way.”
.@RonWyden to introduce a national mental health care and public safety proposal, called the CAHOOTS Act, modeled after the #Eugene-based unarmed crisis response team. @WhiteBirdClinic https://t.co/QnHsY2fmJz
— Michelle Maxwell (@MichelleAtTheRG) August 4, 2020
“For individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis, the assistance of trained health care and social workers is more effective than interventions from law enforcement in deescalating the situation and helping to connect those individuals with vital services to address the problems that led to the crisis,” said Cortez Masto. “I’m proud to support legislation that will provide Nevada and states across the country with additional Medicaid funding to help them set up mobile crisis teams that have a proven track-record of providing effective, trauma-informed care to those in need.”
“We hope that the CAHOOTS model pioneered by White Bird Clinic in Eugene, OR can help communities across the United States develop public safety systems that align with their values,” said Chris Hecht, Executive Coordinator of White Bird Clinic. “Dispatching medical and behavioral health professionals to care for community members in crisis is a proven way to improve outcomes, combat racism, and avoid violence. We thank Senator Wyden for this legislation because we are eager to share a model that has succeeded in our community for 31 years.”
The bill, the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) Act, grants states enhanced federal Medicaid funding (a 95% federal match) for three years to provide community-based mobile crisis services to individuals experiencing a mental health or SUD crisis. It also provides $25 million for planning grants to states to help establish or build out mobile crisis programs.
The bill is part of Wyden’s agenda to address a persistent lack of access to mental health care for too many Americans. He is also pursuing legislation to support access to wraparound services that help individuals after the initial crisis response.
A one page summary of the bill can be found here. Legislative text can be found here.
by Rashida Tlaib Apr 23, 2020 in “The Appeal”
What would an Emergency First Responders Corps look like?
“The most important aspect of the Emergency First Responder Corps is that it must be civilian and designed to help people. The idea isn’t novel — it is something neighbors have been doing for centuries, and the time is now to take comprehensive approach to formalizing it to help our most vulnerable communities.
A good model of this exists in Eugene, Oregon, CAHOOTS — Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets — has worked for decades to help people in crisis. They deal with those who are suicidal, houseless, infirm, or just having trouble getting the basics they need to survive. It’s fully integrated into the local service community. And they are effective. In 2018, CAHOOTS responded to 24,000 calls. CAHOOTS and the White Bird Clinic were recently awarded federal funding to expand telemedicine access during the current pandemic.”
CAHOOTS program coordinator Tim Black joined Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and our self-described “biggest fan of CAHOOTS in the Rockies” Colorado State Representative Leslie Herod to discuss the CAHOOTS model and why there is a need for a behavioral health branch of public safety in communities across the nation.
Senator Ron Wyden will meet with White Bird CAHOOTS staff at CAHOOTS headquarters at 970 W 7th Ave in Eugene to discuss how this groundbreaking program can be a model for a national policing reform package and how Congress can best support the work. “The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 takes a vital first step toward accountability, and I am all in with pressing forward to achieve this legislation’s urgently needed re-focus of resources and policies,” said Sen. Wyden. Sen. Wyden co-sponsored the legislation, which would hold police accountable, change the culture of law enforcement and build trust between law enforcement and communities in Oregon and nationwide.
31 years ago White Bird Clinic launched CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) as a community policing initiative to provide mental health first response for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. CAHOOTS offers compassionate, effective, timely care while diverting a considerable portion of the public safety workload, conserving police and fire department capacity. In 2019, CAHOOTS handled 17% of the Eugene Police Department’s calls. In 2017, police officers nationally spent 21% of their time responding to or transporting people with mental illness.
Dispatching appropriate responders for each unique situation is essential to ensuring the best outcome. CAHOOTS focuses exclusively on meeting the medical and mental health needs of the community, making it more appropriate, economical, and effective than traditional models involving agencies with a much larger scope of responsibility.
Police officers and fire fighters receive training in a broad set of skills, making their deployment to non-emergent situations unnecessarily costly. The CAHOOTS model also ensures that health and behavioral health care are integrated from the onset of intervention and treatment, adding to the efficacy and economy of the model.
White Bird’s CAHOOTS program has attracted notice from international news media as communities across the nation and around the world confront the need to reimagine public safety to ensure that it equitably serves human beings of all races and ethnicities.
CAHOOTS is providing strategic guidance and training to assist communities in developing innovative public safety systems that align with their values.
In 1969, a group of student activists and concerned practitioners came together to provide crisis services and free medical care for counter-culture youth in Eugene, OR. Having grown continuously since then, today White Bird Clinic has 10 programs, 220 staff members, and more than 400 volunteers each year.
In The Appeal‘s Explainer series, Justice Collaborative lawyers, journalists, and other legal experts help unpack some of the most complicated issues in the criminal justice system.
Co-authors Tim Black, CAHOOTS Operations Coordinator, and Patrisse Cullors, Artist and Activist, “break down the problems behind the headlines—like bail, civil asset forfeiture, or the Brady doctrine—so that everyone can understand them. Wherever possible, we try to utilize the stories of those affected by the criminal justice system to show how these laws and principles should work, and how they often fail.”
proceeds from the sale of the shirts benefit eugblac, a racial injustice organization dedicated to police abolition, equitable education and black liberation. They have established a bail out fund for Black owned businesses, and have a goal of making an official Black library that they hope will become a sanctuary for the BIPOC community. The CAHOOTS team thanks eugblac for helping them to understand cultural humility and adopt anti-racist practices.
The Oregon Department of Justice is hosting a series of Community Conversations running July 6-29 to help open pathways to justice & support for marginalized & oppressed people in Oregon. The events will cover:
The HOOTS (Helping Out Our Teens in Schools) program stands in solidarity with our youth, educators, and community members who are calling for our schools to prioritize the mental health needs and well-being of all students by de-funding the school resource officer (SRO) position and reallocating those funds towards support services for students. We stand with our community as it resoundingly demands that public schools be safe for all students and that school districts demonstrate a commitment to providing ample non-punitive support.
As a team of mental health and medical professionals, we see students on a daily basis who are survivors of a maladapted safety net that only exacerbates issues of poverty and oppression. Hoots believes in utilizing mediation, restorative justice and self-reflection–tools that we know to be more effective in the development of our students than criminalization and punishment. Our team encourages school administrators to work proactively to identify alternative ways in which student needs and challenges can be addressed, and we happily offer our assistance in whatever way we can. We believe that working to support students, rather than punishing them, is ultimately the path that will lead to safer schools.
We hear students of color speaking out about law enforcement presence in their schools, and the negative impact this has on their safety and ability to thrive. We need to listen and believe these voices, and allow them to lead the way toward racial justice in our school system. Despite the ubiquitous presence of SROs nationwide, very little evidence exists that supports their effectiveness at deterring acts of violence. On the contrary, in many instances, SROs have been found to perpetuate and escalate violence in schools.
Hoots pledges its support to the movement to reallocate all funding from the SRO program. We believe that students’ actions are a reflection of the care afforded to them by the community, and as such, well-compensated teachers, counselors, and support staff are what will truly make a difference in keeping students safe and healthy. We ask that all schools demonstrate their dedication to listening to the voices of students of color and their families, and the empirical evidence available showing the harm SROs can cause. We are thankful to be a part of a community that can have these challenging discussions.
Update: On Tuesday, June 16th the Eugene Human Rights Commission unanimously voted to endorse this policy recommendation and refer it on to City Council for deliberation.
The following testimony in reference to the enforcement of the prohibited camping ordinance was submitted to the Eugene Police Commission, a twelve-member citizen body that acts in an advisory capacity to the city council, the chief of police and the city manager on police policy and resource issues. Join the Thursday, June 11 meeting via Webinar: https://eugene-or-gov.zoom.us/j/98439278535
Dear Police Commissioners,
In reference to your agenda item on the Prohibited Camping Re-enforcement Rollout, White Bird Clinic asks that EPD continue to follow CDC guidelines and not disperse encampments unless there is illegal conduct outside of camping.
Recommended Policy Focus – Harm Reduction
White Bird Clinic believes that ending unsheltered homelessness requires a coordinated approach that addresses social, emotional, and physical well-being. We support policy initiatives that center people with lived experience and support solution-oriented advocacy efforts that adequately fund programs effective in ending homelessness.