OHA presents statewide behavioral-health priorities: workforce, access, state hospital strain

Ebony Clark, Director of the Behavioral Health Division at the Oregon Health Authority, told the Senate Committee on Early Childhood and Behavioral Health on Jan. 23 that Oregon’s behavioral health system faces a mixture of rising demand, workforce shortages and gaps in community capacity.

“Behavioral health refers to a person's emotional and mental health well-being across the lifespan,” Clark said. She framed the division’s work around prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery supports and stressed the role of social determinants — housing, education, employment, language access and culture — in shaping outcomes.

Clark said the Behavioral Health Division, created in 2024, aims to expand the workforce, increase access to community-based care and improve accountability to outcomes. She told senators the division’s annual budget is “just a little over 6,000,000,000,” that roughly 49% of the 2023–25 budget is state general fund and about 51% federal funds, and that average behavioral-health spending increased about 30% over the last biennium.

She cited specific system pressures: the opioid crisis and fentanyl’s presence in the drug supply, rising numbers of people diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI), and workforce shortages “at all levels from psychiatry to alcohol and drug…