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November 17, 2021
Media contact: Aria Seligmann, ari.l.seligmann@dhsoha.state.or.us
503-910-9239
(Junction City, Ore.) The Junction City campus of the state’s psychiatric hospital welcomed eight new patients on Monday, Nov. 15, and will welcome an additional 16 people by Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. The 24-bed unit will provide treatment for people under Guilty Except for Insanity (GEI) commitments at the secure residential treatment level of care, who are transferring from the Salem campus.
The Junction City campus opened six years ago and has never been fully budgeted until this year, when the Oregon legislature allocated $31 million in its 2021-23 budget for the opening of two additional units. The first 24-bed unit, which opened Monday, Nov. 15, will cost approximately $15 million per biennium to operate. The second, 24-bed unit is being planned for an early 2022 opening, pending adequate staffing.
The $31M budget includes an additional 110 positions: 51 to staff each unit and eight additional staff for administrative and operational support. Staffing for the new unit is composed of new hires, some agency nurses, existing staff who transferred into the new positions or temporary staff, who will remain until their positions are filled permanently. Open positions are posted on the Oregon State Hospital jobs page.
“We’re grateful for the legislature’s support to help us increase capacity,” said Oregon State Hospital superintendent Dolly Matteucci. “The additional beds in Junction City will ease some of the pressure on the hospital and make available much-needed bed space on the Salem campus for people under GEI and Aid and Assist orders.”
The legislature also gave Oregon Health Authority funds to allocate to counties for additional resources and beds in the community for people under Aid and Assist orders who don’t need hospital-level care. When those community beds become available, “more people will get the right care, in the right place, at the right time,” said Matteucci.
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