The Oregon Warmline is fighting for its life
By Terry Murry on Friday, August 18th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
OREGON – The David Romprey Oregon Warmline is in trouble. The service provides peer counseling for people who are not in an immediate mental health crisis, but need someone to talk to who has personal experience with mental health disorders.
The warmline was started by Community Counseling Solutions in 2005 to operate statewide. In 2020, the funding was $600,000. That allowed the line to operate 15 hours a day, seven days a week. In 2022, the Oregon Health Authority increased the warmline to 24/7 operations with a bilingual service with funding of $2.6 million.
Warmline administrators say they were not made aware that the increase was from American Rescue Plan dollars, which were a one-time thing. OHA told CCS it was reducing the amount it was paying to $1.1 million, which would mean layoffs and a cutback of services.
Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer is the liaison for CCS and Commissioner Cindy Timmons says when he heard of the problem, he immediately called OHA.
“Basically, what he said was the optics for cutting funds for a governor priority doesn’t look very good,” Timmons said. “Forty-five minutes before they were going to start letting staff know their jobs were cut, the funding came through. They’ve just got six months’ worth of funding so they’re busy trying to find those extra dollars.”
Timmons said an estimated 16,000 people use the warmline quarterly. It’s estimated that it saves the state an estimated $6.3 million, circumventing police, fire, and health responses. The number for the Oregon Warmline is 800-698-2392.
