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Lane County unveils live dashboard for behavioral health deflection program
Summary
County staff demonstrated a publicly available dashboard that tracks the behavioral health deflection program's participants, referrals, demographics and partner agencies; the tool is updated daily and is intended to support transparency and program monitoring.
County staff on Tuesday demonstrated a new public dashboard that tracks Lane County's behavioral health deflection program, a state-funded Measure 110 initiative that diverts eligible low-level offenders from criminal charges into behavioral health services.
County Administrator notified the board that the deflection program dashboard is available on the county website and is updated daily. Jeff Kinkade, senior operational analyst, and Greg Ryckoff, Assistant County Administrator, walked commissioners through the dashboard, which displays the number of participants, removals, average days in program, referral sources and the range of services and partner agencies used by participants.
Why it matters: The dashboard creates a transparent, near-real-time view of program activity and outcomes for elected officials, law enforcement partners and the public. Staff said the county is averaging a few dozen deflections per month during the program's first eight months and that the tool helps show trends and service utilization.
Dashboard highlights - The dashboard is updated each morning and shows participants currently in the program, those removed and average days in program (staff noted removed participants average about 51 days in the program). - The program was designed primarily for possession of controlled substances and lower-level offenses; staff noted non-drug-related behavioral and quality-of-life incidents are also present in referrals. - Nearly all law-enforcement agencies in the county participate in deflection referrals; the largest volume comes from metropolitan-area partners, staff said. - The navigators and service providers refer people to more than 100 distinct community resources; Willamette Family Treatment and the Coquille Wellness Center were cited among frequent partners.
Commissioner discussion Commissioners asked about update frequency (staff said daily), recent month-to-month trends (staff said referrals generally increased as law-enforcement partners learned to use the resource), and whether reduced jail population results in reduced jail-related revenue; staff said the improvement in public health and justice outcomes is the primary objective and that the program is designed to reduce longer-term system costs.
Ending Staff said the state will publish an annual snapshot of deflection data; the county dashboard provides a more frequent operational view to guide program management.
