OHA reveals how Oregon Mental Health Funding will be spent

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - A year after state legislators approved hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for mental health services, the Oregon Health Authority announced how and when that funding would be rolled out.

Starting this week, $132 million will go to Oregon treatment providers to stabilize their behavioral health workforce, which OHA said was severed impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

OHA also approved another $155 million in rate increases for treatment providers, effective July 1, which are intended to fund treatment services.

A third significant chunk of funding, $230 million, will go toward supporting housing and residential treatment programs later this summer.

The funding announced Friday is separate from Ballot Measure 110, which funds drug treatment and behavioral health through marijuana tax revenues.  The first wave of that funding was approved for treatment services in Harney County, with 29 other counties’ applications for funds still being reviewed.

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