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April 26, 2024
Media Contact: Jonathan Modie, 971-246-9139, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov
OHA Director Dr. Sejal Hathi meets with Portland Metro-area health leaders as part of regional tours
PORTLAND, Ore. — Sejal Hathi, M.D., MBA, director of Oregon Health Authority (OHA), deepened her engagement with Portland's health care community this week, visiting several key organizations including the Miracles Club, Virginia Garcia Wellness Center and Central City Concern.
Her visit is part of a broader, months-long state tour to identify and center the priorities of all Oregon communities in OHA’s strategic planning.
One of Dr. Hathi’s first stops was at the Miracles Club, a Measure 110 grantee that provides peer support and sober housing to Portland’s Black community.
“This is an organization exclusively dedicated to serving a population that has, for too long, gone unserved,” she observed. “They understand the judgment and stigmatization this population faces. And still they carry that, and meet them where they are, by investing in peers with lived experience, by building relationships, and by intentionally fostering community, which we know is foundational to sustained recovery.”
Discussions with leaders from local public health, mental health agencies, and Trillium Community Health Plan emphasized the need for enhanced collaboration across health services.
"We need to do a better job integrating health care with public health – across data systems, programs, and funding streams – to more effectively address the most pressing local needs around behavioral health, homelessness and poverty," Dr. Hathi said.
The following day, Dr. Hathi visited the Virginia Garcia Wellness Center, touring its facilities and a custom mobile clinic that delivers medical and dental care to community sites. She also participated in a roundtable discussion with the Oregon Primary Care Association about the challenges faced by federally qualified health centers delivering vital safety-net care amid workforce shortages.
Dr. Hathi's tour concluded at Central City Concern, which provides behavioral and physical health care to nearly 14,000 individuals in the Portland metro area toward a goal of ending homelessness. Dr. Hathi pointed to Central City Concern’s Mobile Health program, which uses custom-made vans to deliver primary care, behavioral health and community health outreach services to the unhoused population, as one of many examples of the “spirit of innovation” that first drew her to Oregon. But there’s more work to do.
“I know we can do more to support one another, to bridge our silos and to work together as county and state, to better serve vulnerable Oregonians, especially those grappling with behavioral health crises,” she said.
Dr. Hathi will spend the next month making the final few visits of her statewide listening tour – meeting with and talking to community leaders, health care providers, Tribal leaders, local public health officials, and non-profit partners about their biggest needs from the state and OHA – to ensure those needs are represented and addressed as she shapes the agency’s next chapter.
Here is a link to B-roll footage, an audio file and still pictures from Dr. Hathi's most recent trip
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