Starting in 2021, Oregon lawmakers gave tens of millions of dollars in funding to the Oregon Health Authority to bolster the behavioral health workforce, encourage people to enter the field and reach marginalized communities and rural pockets of the state where mental health care is scarce. The money, $80 million by 2022, was supposed to help the state grow a diverse behavioral health workforce to meet the needs of a state that struggles to provide care to all who need it. That push came amid a recognition that Oregon’s behavioral health care system is difficult to access, with the state consistently ranking low in national reports.
Yet after state lawmakers stepped up with more money, the Oregon Health Authority stumbled. It’s unclear how much progress the funding brought. The agency cannot show the effectiveness of its programs because it did not design performance metrics to show their impact, the agency’s auditors concluded in an internal report.
This has restricted the agency’s ability to demonstrate the long-term benefits to lawmakers or communities. Another major problem: a lack of planning. “Without an effective plan, OHA could not properly engage intended communities across Oregon to provide necessary retention and recruitment efforts to develop and grow the behavioral health pipeline,” auditors wrote in the January report, obtained by the Capital Chronicle through a public records request.
The agency has already started to make improvements and changes t.