Letters to the Editor 3/6/2025

Guest Opinion: Fixing Oregon’s Mental Health Crisis Requires Consistency, Not Recruitment
With the highest prevalence of mental illness in the U.S., Oregon is caught in the middle of a behavioral health crisis. The need for mental health and substance use disorder services is growing at an alarming rate, but the workforce to meet that need isn’t keeping up. Oregon is short thousands of behavioral health beds as it struggles to find staff. As a result, wait times can stretch up to six months for Oregonians in desperate need of immediate care. Oregon must grow its behavioral health workforce organically — by taking care of those who are already serving.

Adding thousands of trained professionals to the workforce doesn’t happen overnight. Oregon can’t simply recruit its way out of this problem. It must invest in its existing workforce while creating meaningful incentives for new professionals to join the field. That means boosting financial support and streamlining outdated processes while fostering a culture of support around behavioral health professionals.

Becoming a social worker is a major undertaking that can leave social workers struggling under a heavy financial burden. Tuition for earning a master’s of social work (MSW) often ranges from $40,000 to $60,000, while licensing and continued education requirements take additional time and money. In Oregon, a mental health and substance abuse social worker makes about $61,000 a year — $7,000 less than the average salary in Oregon. Expecting social workers to incur heavy loans to earn an MSW and then paying them less than average is simply unacceptable. Expecting more people to want to join an underpaid and overworked profession is simply unrealistic.

Oregon must act quickly to alleviate the financial stress on social workers through loan forgiveness programs, scholarships and paid internships. Understanding and alleviating the stressors on social workers is a pivotal step in shifting the narrative for so many Oregonians who need help. The value of behavioral health professionals isn’t measured in dollars but in healthy minds and lives. It’s time for Oregon to put its money behind the professionals who support its most vulnerable populations.

Outdated licensing and exam processes are another source of unnecessary stress on social workers. Further, the red tape created by old practices can prevent would-be social workers from entering the field. The everyday demands of social workers range from home visits to in-person sessions to researching available resources. On top of this, they must meticulously document all their interactions with clients, which can take hours every day. Allowing bureaucratic traditions to impose unnecessary work on already busy social workers simply increases the chances for burnout.

Oregon must prioritize initiatives such as the Social Work Licensure Compact that streamline old processes. Instead of requiring social workers to spend hours studying for and retaking a licensing exam for each state they want to practice in, the compact creates a single interstate license that is valid in all participating states. This provides seamless continuity of care for clients and social workers who need to move in or out of the state. Passing legislation such as this is a simple, effective way to strengthen the workforce by cutting away superfluous burdens.

While these steps may seem small in the face of such a widespread crisis, they are the key to creating an environment within Oregon that appreciates and supports behavioral health professionals. Addressing the shortage takes more than a single bill or recruitment push. It requires a lasting commitment to steadily supporting the professionals who dedicate themselves to helping our state. Social workers provide constant support to thousands of Oregonians. It’s Oregon’s turn to support them too.

—Richard L. Jones, Ph.D., president of the board at
Preferra Insurance Company RRG, a behavioral health liability insurance company
overseen by social workers

The Federal Budget Proposal and the Fallout
I am angry today, more than I have been in a very long time. I am angry that Republicans have voted with such cruelty and self-serving malice to approve a budget that is in direct conflict with a prosperous nation, a nation that has in the past stood for dreams, equality and protection of the vulnerable. I am angry that the EU now thinks of the U.S. as an “adversary” (G. Rachman, The London Economic). I am angry that so many will be harmed if this budget makes it through Congress. Let me elaborate, if anything it’s therapeutic, hopefully it will galvanize people.

The budget proposal approved yesterday (2/25/25) is cruel. It includes $2 trillion in SPENDING CUTS, which these committees must find: $880 billion to Energy and Commerce Committee (this includes Medicaid and Medicare); $330 billion to Education and Workforce (the biggest chunk being school nutrition programs); $230 billion to Agriculture (the biggest chunk being SNAP); $562 billion from “other.” It includes TAX CUTS of $4.5 trillion (4.5 x $1,000 billion).

The cruelty is apparent in these data: In Oregon alone, 17% of the state’s population uses SNAP benefits, about one in six people. In the U.S., 12.6 % of the population uses SNAP; that’s 42.1 million per month. In Oregon alone, 23% or almost 1.5 million people have Medicaid for health care. In the U.S., 18.9% of the population or over 72 million people have Medicaid. So we now have a potential budget that takes away health care, food subsidies for families (SNAP and school nutrition) while giving enormous tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations.

The disparity in cuts vs. spending automatically adds at least $2.8 trillion to the deficit. The debt ceiling is approved to be raised by $4 trillion. What this shows is a massive transfer of wealth from the poor and shrinking middle class to the wealthy, plain and simple. This budget wants to take the nonprofit status of hospitals; they will close in rural areas. Did you vote for this?

—Marilyn Hofmann-Jones

Thank You

Thank you to all the strangers who came to my aid on Wednesday, Feb. 26. I took a bad spill while walking along Pine Nursery Park. Within seconds there were several people including a nurse and an off-duty police officer by my side indicating the need for me to go to the emergency room. One woman insisted on not leaving my side until I was transported. Three young men in a car pulled up and came over to check on me. The fire department arrived with a pumper truck and EMT, followed by an ambulance. A broken arm and stitches to my face were attended to at the ER. Good and wonderful people at every stage. I can’t thank you enough!

—Jim Scott

Letter of the Week:

Jim, thanks for this note of gratitude, which restores our faith in the innate kindness and selflessness of people in our community.

—Chris Young

This article appears in The Source Weekly March 6, 2025.