More than 100 people arrested for trespassing at five Portland hospitals and the metro area’s psychiatric emergency department from the summer of 2017 through the summer of 2018, according to an article on the Oregonian Live website.
They’re classified as “unwanted’’ on hospital security and police reports.
According to released by the Disability Rights Oregon’s Mental Health Rights Project, when a patient who’s going to a hospital for healthcare is be put in the category of ‘unwanted, ’ it’s stigmatizing and an undermining of their humanity.
Instead of police, trained professionals who aren’t police -- such as Lane County’s Cahoots mobile crisis units, which pair medics with a mental health crisis expert -- should be sent to connect people with needed services, the report said.