EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is accompanied by “Peninsula Behavioral Health medical director: Depression among top cause of workplace absences” — https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150908/NEWS/309089986
See also sidebar on depression, “Signs of clinical depression are varied, as are ways to treat it” — https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150908/NEWS/309089985
PORT ANGELES — Dr. Josh Jones heard it in New York state. He heard it in Vermont. He even heard it when stationed in Iraq.
In each place, he heard that mentally ill people were being bused into the community because it offers better treatment.
It’s as false in the Northwest as it was in the Mideast, Jones, medical director of Peninsula Behavioral Health, told about 20 people at the Port Angeles Business Association meeting in Joshua’s Restaurant, 113 DelGuzzi Drive, on Aug. 25.
“It’s not true,” he said. “There’s no evidence to suggest that’s actually happening.”
Factual conditions that account for people who act out their behavioral disorders include homelessness, poverty and the fact that any urban area “is a kind of magnet for strangeness.
“We don’t have better resources or more resources than the [Puget Sound] urban areas,” Jones said.
“We have a homeless problem, but every place has a homeless problem as well.”
Partly because of expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Peninsula Behavioral Health already has seen more than 4,000 clients this year — exceeding its total for all of 2014.
The agency is the only clinic in East Clallam County that cannot close its doors to anyone ever, Jones said.
A client in crisis will receive immediate care, Jones said. For less-emergent, ongoing treatment, a screening intake may take seven days, with therapy beginning a week after that.
The agency also offers “walk-in Wednesdays,” Jones said.
“We kind of take all comers,” he said.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
