Oregon's diversion data will show how many people don't have access to medication treatment

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — It's been a month since Oregon's new drug possession charges took effect and most counties have implemented a diversion program.

The state has developed a data tracking system to measure the success of these programs. This includes tracking how a lack of treatment beds has affected the success of the programs.

Programs aimed at diverting people from the criminal justice system into services are structured differently by county, with a few counties opting out of diversion altogether.

Some counties' diversion programs will begin later in the year.

All counties with a diversion program have one thing in common: they have all received government funding in exchange for agreeing to report data back to the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC). The data will be used by lawmakers to understand diversion best practices, and lawmakers will consider the information when deciding whether and how to continue to fund diversion programs in the future.

CJC contracted with OHSU to develop a series of questions for counties to answer to track data on diversion success.

The questioners apply to every step of the diversion process. For example, counties and their service providers are asked to answer a questionnaire when a person is screened for services in the diversion process.

The screening questionnaire asks what types of screenings were done, where, and by whom the screening was done. It asks diversion providers to determine whether a substance use disorder has been diagnosed, how it was diagnosed, and what substance is being used.

The next questionnaire in the process is completed when Deflection customers receive a referral to the Services. The questioner asks what types of services the client was referred to and why the client did not receive medically supervised inpatient treatment. The possible answers to this question are as follows:

1. The service is not available in your region
2. The waiting list was too long
3. Refused service
4. CCO refused coverage
5. Change in treatment plan
6. No longer needed
7. No tracking possible/contact not possible

Tony Vezina, co-founder of 4D Recovery, one of three nonprofits currently addressing diversion in Multnomah Co, says the lack of availability of treatment beds is one of the biggest obstacles to the program.

“Let’s say I sold you a car, and I had sold you this car, and it was like the best car at the best price,” he said. “You say, 'I'm ready to do it now,' and then I'm like, 'Well, you know what?' Maybe we can get you the car next week, but you're less likely to buy the car .”

He said if beds aren't immediately available, it will be much harder to get people to get involved at a later date.

“Just tracking people down and finding them later where they are, if they don't have a phone, if they don't answer their emails, then where do we go, how do we find people,” he said, noting that in such situations we have to In most cases they mark answer number seven.

The CJC's data collection system launched on Tuesday. However, the data submitted by counties is preliminary and does not yet indicate whether diversion has been successful in many cases. Many counties, including Multnomah, give people at least a month to engage with services before determining whether their diversion was successful or unsuccessful.

Multnomah County says currently only two of the 58 people who entered its diversion program have reached that 30-day mark. A county spokesperson estimated that by the end of October, the county should have a better understanding of the percentage of people who have successfully completed the diversion, as well as some of the root causes of so-called failures.

According to Vezina, the definition of failure in this regard is somewhat limiting because even if people end up being charged or even go to prison, there are still other options within the criminal justice system for them to enter drug court.

He said his teams also do preventive work by reaching groups of people who are at high risk of being arrested for drug use.

“Before the cops even go out there, like I have a team of colleagues that go out and try to attack them, before public safety even needs to, we're going after them for the first time,” he said. “If that doesn’t work, we could send the police, because actually we want to use the police to deal with the most dangerous situations.”

It is unclear whether these preventative measures will be tracked in the state's data collection systems for diversion.