Psychiatric Security Review Board presents four bills on juvenile panel, immunity and records; disability-rights and press groups raise concerns

The House Committee on Judiciary heard four bills from the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB) on Feb. 10 that would change how the board is structured, shield board members from certain civil discovery, and limit public disclosure of individually identifiable health information for people under PSRB jurisdiction.

Allison Bort, the PSRB’s executive director, told the committee the package is intended to consolidate scarce agency resources and to protect confidential clinical information used in contested hearings. "We're an independent quasi-judicial administrative body," Bort said. She described the agency’s caseload as largely adult (about 640 individuals across four programs) with a very small juvenile caseload (about five individuals), and said the proposals aim to concentrate expertise while preserving due process via hearings and judicial review.

HB 2804: juvenile panel consolidation

House Bill 2804 would repeal the separate juvenile panel of the Psychiatric Security Review Board and consolidate the juvenile and adult panels into a single five-member panel with an additional senior member to assist with system-level issues and quorum. Bort said the juvenile panel currently handles roughly five individuals and that maintaining a separate panel imposes overhead costs for a low-volume docket. She said the PSRB would reinvest savings from operating a single panel into specialized training and consultation so members retain juvenile expertise.

Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) opposed HB 2804 at the hearing, arguing the move would remove subject-matter experts with child-specific licensure and experience. A DRO spokesperson said eliminating the…