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Springfield resident Alicia Pecue spent 11 days in the Behavioral Health Unit at Mercy Medical Center when she was 16. She is holding a journal she used to write about her experiences based on her medical records. Diagnosed
as bipolar, Pecue has returned to school and is currently
on track to graduate this year.
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ENLARGE
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Springfield resident Alicia Pecue spent 11 days in Mercy Medical Center's Behavioral Health Unit when she was 16. Her parents took her to Sacred Heart hospital in Eugene, but since it doesn’t have a children’s mental health unit, doctors called Mercy’s BHU. Mercy sent a van to Eugene that picked up Alicia and took her to Roseburg where she stayed for a week and a half. Off medication now, she and her mother Christina watch for changes in her behavior that might signal another breakdown.
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This time last year Alicia Pecue went from being a typical 16-year-old girl — consumed with school, theater, a part-time job, her friends and her boyfriend — to being a patient at Mercy’s Behavioral Health Unit, all within a couple of weeks.
As she thinks back to the weeks leading up to her 11-day stay at the hospital, she can remember acting and feeling unlike herself. Alicia, who is now 17, was being pulled in several directions by all of her commitments in the weeks leading up to her manic break. She was working part time, was overloaded at school and was involved with her high school theater group. Eventually the stress became too much to handle.
“I started doing stuff out of character,” she said. “People kind of noticed but thought ‘Oh, Alicia’s just going through a weird time.’ Then I started seeing and hearing things.”
She also started stealing because she felt like she couldn’t be caught, and started lying to her parents because she figured they would never find out. Two uncharacteristic behaviors for the Springfield girl. Then one day at school, right before winter vacation, Alicia broke down.
“The day before I went to the hospital I came home from school and I had broken up with my boyfriend,” she said. “Voices told me to break up with him. I came home telling my mom that I broke up with God. She had me lay down, but I woke up still saying it. And I thought I was dead. And I thought I was in hell.”
Alicia continued to have visions of heaven and hell, and at times thought she was talking to the devil and God. Her parents took her to Sacred Heart hospital in Eugene, but since it doesn’t have a children’s mental health unit, doctors called Mercy’s BHU. Mercy sent a van to Eugene that picked up Alicia and took her to Roseburg, where she stayed for a week and a half.
At the BHU, Alicia was placed in a solitary room because she was experiencing a severe manic break and said she wasn’t in control of her body or thoughts.
“I wasn’t being mean or abusive or aggressive,” Alicia said. “I would get too close to people, maybe freak other kids out a bit. ... At night I would go to other people’s rooms and scream.”
During her stay in the youth unit, Alicia said she and other patients were encouraged to participate in building their life skills and were rewarded with points marked on a white board on the wall. She also received therapy and counseling. Eventually she went back to her Springfield home, where she suffered from anxiety and severe depression for weeks. Her psychologist diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and Alicia began taking medication. After three months of medication changes, Alicia gave up on taking pills that made her feel unlike herself.
Now Alicia sees a counselor whenever she feels overwhelmed, and tries to monitor her behavior, watching for clues that she may have another manic break.
“People think it won’t happen again, but I think you have to know that it can,” Alicia said.
In the months until Alicia turns 18, when she would be of age to use the adult mental health facility in Eugene, she just hopes she doesn’t have another manic break that would necessitate a trip to Portland for adolescent care.
“I remember when I heard about the BHU closing, I was just really shocked because if I have to be hospitalized again, where would I go?” Alicia said. “The only other place I’ve heard of, is Portland.”
As she thinks back to the weeks leading up to her 11-day stay at the hospital, she can remember acting and feeling unlike herself. Alicia, who is now 17, was being pulled in several directions by all of her commitments in the weeks leading up to her manic break. She was working part time, was overloaded at school and was involved with her high school theater group. Eventually the stress became too much to handle.
“I started doing stuff out of character,” she said. “People kind of noticed but thought ‘Oh, Alicia’s just going through a weird time.’ Then I started seeing and hearing things.”
She also started stealing because she felt like she couldn’t be caught, and started lying to her parents because she figured they would never find out. Two uncharacteristic behaviors for the Springfield girl. Then one day at school, right before winter vacation, Alicia broke down.
“The day before I went to the hospital I came home from school and I had broken up with my boyfriend,” she said. “Voices told me to break up with him. I came home telling my mom that I broke up with God. She had me lay down, but I woke up still saying it. And I thought I was dead. And I thought I was in hell.”
Alicia continued to have visions of heaven and hell, and at times thought she was talking to the devil and God. Her parents took her to Sacred Heart hospital in Eugene, but since it doesn’t have a children’s mental health unit, doctors called Mercy’s BHU. Mercy sent a van to Eugene that picked up Alicia and took her to Roseburg, where she stayed for a week and a half.
At the BHU, Alicia was placed in a solitary room because she was experiencing a severe manic break and said she wasn’t in control of her body or thoughts.
“I wasn’t being mean or abusive or aggressive,” Alicia said. “I would get too close to people, maybe freak other kids out a bit. ... At night I would go to other people’s rooms and scream.”
During her stay in the youth unit, Alicia said she and other patients were encouraged to participate in building their life skills and were rewarded with points marked on a white board on the wall. She also received therapy and counseling. Eventually she went back to her Springfield home, where she suffered from anxiety and severe depression for weeks. Her psychologist diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and Alicia began taking medication. After three months of medication changes, Alicia gave up on taking pills that made her feel unlike herself.
Now Alicia sees a counselor whenever she feels overwhelmed, and tries to monitor her behavior, watching for clues that she may have another manic break.
“People think it won’t happen again, but I think you have to know that it can,” Alicia said.
In the months until Alicia turns 18, when she would be of age to use the adult mental health facility in Eugene, she just hopes she doesn’t have another manic break that would necessitate a trip to Portland for adolescent care.
“I remember when I heard about the BHU closing, I was just really shocked because if I have to be hospitalized again, where would I go?” Alicia said. “The only other place I’ve heard of, is Portland.”
<b>LOCAL SERVICES</b>
The closure of the BHU in October meant the only area in the state for teens and children to receive hospitalized treatment is in the metropolitan area where, as of July 2006, 42 beds exist. The 11 beds available at Mercy seemed more appealing to Alicia’s parents, who didn’t want their teenage daughter two hours away.
Losing the acute care beds at Mercy was a blow to the community, but county organizations are working hard to fills the gaps that are left. Last year, with the closure of the BHU looming, the county’s juvenile and mental health departments teamed up to try and find a way to provide care for teens. Their solution was to add two beds to the Juvenile Department’s shelter that would be available to children 12 years and older who have a mental illness and who are not a safety concern to themselves or others. The shelter also has beds for teenagers in the juvenile system and for kids in the child welfare system who cannot find places in foster homes, said Christina McMahan, juvenile department director.
The two mental health beds have been in place since July 1, and McMahan said the spaces are usually occupied, with teens staying an average of three to 10 days. The beds are paid for by county funds that are set aside for inpatient services for teens and children. Usually kids stay in the shelter until an outpatient plan can be developed, a place in a residential treatment center opens up or the child is ready to return home. The shelter staff is trained extensively in how to care for children with mental illnesses and provide one-on-one counseling with kids staying in the shelter, McMahan said.
After the BHU closed, ChristieCare, a private company based in Portland, had plans to come to Roseburg and lease the building. ChristieCare would have provided services for children and teens, but ran into troubles with state funding and had to pull out of the deal. ChristieCare does have plans to bring two other treatment programs to Douglas County, said Lynne Saxton, ChristieCare’s executive director.
The company is working to open a treatment foster home in Douglas County that will serve children and teens all over southern Oregon. The company is also planning to start a program in the county that will provide housing for five young adults, ages 18 to 24, and will help them prepare and plan for their future, Saxton said.
The residential programs are something Douglas County is currently lacking and could benefit area children and teens, said Janet Holland, the county’s mental health director. Most of the services available in the county involve preventive education and early intervention, she said. County schools focus on reinforcing positive behavior, local organizations provide mentors and several support groups and classes are springing up in the area.
Douglas County Mental Health provides outpatient services such as counselors and therapists, and various groups around town offer in-home assistance, respite care and day treatment centers.
All of the services available provide a strong base for the community, and help Douglas County continue on its way to forming a continuum of care for children, which is something that’s also being emphasized at the state level.
<b>WRAPAROUND CARE</b>
Earlier this month, the state Children’s Wraparound Steering Committee, a group formed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, finished a report addressing the neglected areas of children’s mental health services. The report searches for ways to provide appropriate care to children 18 years old and younger in their communities and to do it in a fashion that maximizes the available resources.
The wraparound model would provide services locally to children who are involved in more than one area of the state system, such as children who are in special needs classes at school and who are also receiving care for a mental illness through community programs, said Erinn Kelley-Siel, committee co-chair and the governor’s human services policy advisor. The goal is to pool resources and provide treatment for these kids in an effective way, she said. The treatment would be more collaborative, rather than having multiple doctors and multiple agencies providing separate care.
“The vision is that as we work toward the model we will more clearly be able to identify all of the resources spent and ask ourselves, as a state, if we see a better way to do it,” Kelley-Siel said.
The wraparound plan will require an entire transformation of the current system, and Kelley-Siel said that will take time. The next step is to create an implementation team that will examine what has to be done in each community in order to develop a wraparound system of care. In the next 18 months, the implementation team will be doing just that.
“One thing that seems pretty unanimous about the wraparound is that because agencies are coming together to talk about shared responsibilities, then more resources are at the table than have ever been at the table before,” Kelley-Siel said.
Locally, Holland and the county’s Mental Health Advisory Board are working together to find ways to fill the service gaps in the community and to begin developing a wraparound system of care. The board is prioritizing the local shortfalls and will begin focusing on how to fund services that are currently struggling to stay afloat.
“Money invested in kids is huge for preventing kids from becoming adults with mental illness,” Holland said. “Time and time again we hear early intervention, early intervention, early intervention, but the reality with funding is not there.”
• You can reach reporter Marissa Harshman at 957-4202 or by e-mail at mharshman@newsreview.info.
The closure of the BHU in October meant the only area in the state for teens and children to receive hospitalized treatment is in the metropolitan area where, as of July 2006, 42 beds exist. The 11 beds available at Mercy seemed more appealing to Alicia’s parents, who didn’t want their teenage daughter two hours away.
Losing the acute care beds at Mercy was a blow to the community, but county organizations are working hard to fills the gaps that are left. Last year, with the closure of the BHU looming, the county’s juvenile and mental health departments teamed up to try and find a way to provide care for teens. Their solution was to add two beds to the Juvenile Department’s shelter that would be available to children 12 years and older who have a mental illness and who are not a safety concern to themselves or others. The shelter also has beds for teenagers in the juvenile system and for kids in the child welfare system who cannot find places in foster homes, said Christina McMahan, juvenile department director.
The two mental health beds have been in place since July 1, and McMahan said the spaces are usually occupied, with teens staying an average of three to 10 days. The beds are paid for by county funds that are set aside for inpatient services for teens and children. Usually kids stay in the shelter until an outpatient plan can be developed, a place in a residential treatment center opens up or the child is ready to return home. The shelter staff is trained extensively in how to care for children with mental illnesses and provide one-on-one counseling with kids staying in the shelter, McMahan said.
After the BHU closed, ChristieCare, a private company based in Portland, had plans to come to Roseburg and lease the building. ChristieCare would have provided services for children and teens, but ran into troubles with state funding and had to pull out of the deal. ChristieCare does have plans to bring two other treatment programs to Douglas County, said Lynne Saxton, ChristieCare’s executive director.
The company is working to open a treatment foster home in Douglas County that will serve children and teens all over southern Oregon. The company is also planning to start a program in the county that will provide housing for five young adults, ages 18 to 24, and will help them prepare and plan for their future, Saxton said.
The residential programs are something Douglas County is currently lacking and could benefit area children and teens, said Janet Holland, the county’s mental health director. Most of the services available in the county involve preventive education and early intervention, she said. County schools focus on reinforcing positive behavior, local organizations provide mentors and several support groups and classes are springing up in the area.
Douglas County Mental Health provides outpatient services such as counselors and therapists, and various groups around town offer in-home assistance, respite care and day treatment centers.
All of the services available provide a strong base for the community, and help Douglas County continue on its way to forming a continuum of care for children, which is something that’s also being emphasized at the state level.
<b>WRAPAROUND CARE</b>
Earlier this month, the state Children’s Wraparound Steering Committee, a group formed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, finished a report addressing the neglected areas of children’s mental health services. The report searches for ways to provide appropriate care to children 18 years old and younger in their communities and to do it in a fashion that maximizes the available resources.
The wraparound model would provide services locally to children who are involved in more than one area of the state system, such as children who are in special needs classes at school and who are also receiving care for a mental illness through community programs, said Erinn Kelley-Siel, committee co-chair and the governor’s human services policy advisor. The goal is to pool resources and provide treatment for these kids in an effective way, she said. The treatment would be more collaborative, rather than having multiple doctors and multiple agencies providing separate care.
“The vision is that as we work toward the model we will more clearly be able to identify all of the resources spent and ask ourselves, as a state, if we see a better way to do it,” Kelley-Siel said.
The wraparound plan will require an entire transformation of the current system, and Kelley-Siel said that will take time. The next step is to create an implementation team that will examine what has to be done in each community in order to develop a wraparound system of care. In the next 18 months, the implementation team will be doing just that.
“One thing that seems pretty unanimous about the wraparound is that because agencies are coming together to talk about shared responsibilities, then more resources are at the table than have ever been at the table before,” Kelley-Siel said.
Locally, Holland and the county’s Mental Health Advisory Board are working together to find ways to fill the service gaps in the community and to begin developing a wraparound system of care. The board is prioritizing the local shortfalls and will begin focusing on how to fund services that are currently struggling to stay afloat.
“Money invested in kids is huge for preventing kids from becoming adults with mental illness,” Holland said. “Time and time again we hear early intervention, early intervention, early intervention, but the reality with funding is not there.”
• You can reach reporter Marissa Harshman at 957-4202 or by e-mail at mharshman@newsreview.info.
