Council sees value of library, asks for coordination with county

No city councilor questioned the vital benefits to community mental health currently being provided by the Eugene Public Library. But several councilors did ask that the city coordinate with the government agencies responsible for mental health services, especially Lane County. At a work session Nov. 13:

[00:00:24] Joshua Bates (Library, Recreation and Cultural Services, director): The subject of this work session is difficult. It’s about our youth, the children here in our community. They’re oftentimes the most vibrant and creative members of the city of Eugene, but they’re also the most vulnerable.

[00:00:36] So, changes and conflict and issues disproportionately impacts them and while they’re adaptive—I mean, every generation is—they’re also struggling. They’re experiencing negative outcomes amongst many of the indicators of well-being, but especially around mental health.

[00:00:53] A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at the mayor’s youth council and shared a draft of this presentation. I shared the statistic that 75% of youth in Lane County are feeling/have felt anxious the last several days. One of the youth, actually, she’s like, ‘Joshua, that’s likely an undercount.’ And for me, that was striking to think that over 75% of youth here in Eugene are experiencing anxiety in 11th grade.

[00:01:19] And many of these data points are reflected on a national scale. One of the really bleak things that I identified through this is that between 2010 and 2020, the suicide amongst adolescents 10 to 14 has more than doubled. So, it’s not just that it’s negative outcomes for mental health amongst youth. It’s that this is happening to younger and younger kids.

[00:01:43] And if you’re experiencing some form of marginalization, the outcomes are even worse. For instance, Indigenous youth have suicide rates nearly 3.5 times higher than the national average. LGBTQ+ youth are more than twice as likely to experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and are four times more likely to attempt suicide.

[00:02:04] Over half of transgender and non-binary youth have seriously considered suicide. And Black youth are 20% more likely to report serious psychological distress, but are less likely to receive adequate mental health care.

[00:02:18] So while this is by no means comprehensive, other groups that are marginalized, other intersections of identity that youth are experiencing, also have terrible outcomes. This is really meant to show that it’s disproportionate.

[00:02:32] I also want to say too, going back to the Youth Advisory Council, something that the co-chair said to me really has stuck with me as well. She said that bullying during COVID-19 all went online, and much of that bullying happens around identity. And unfortunately, when things have returned to being in person, that bullying is no longer just online anymore. That bullying, that caustic and oftentimes racist and sexist and transphobic discourse, that’s happening in person now. That’s happening in our classrooms. That’s happening in our hallways. That’s happening in our community.

[00:03:08] We’re actually the last in youth mental health outcomes and access to care amongst all 50 states and also Washington D.C. And less than half of youth in Oregon have necessary treatment. In fact, Gov. Kotek identified a priority around youth behavioral health…

[00:03:24] And while this picture may be bleak, I do believe that through the coordinated response of LRCS (Library, Recreation & Cultural Services) of the city of Eugene and our partners and others—providers and systems here in Eugene—that we are doing our absolute best to be able to respond to a dire need at this time that exists across this country.

[00:03:44] Councilor Mike Clark: In the budget discussions that we’ve been having recently, and they’ve been intense and while contemplating new taxes and new fees in an environment where I’m not sure that’s the wise course, I want to guard against what I fear the city is doing a bit and that’s mission creep.

[00:04:05] So while this is certainly an important area, health, mental health, these are county and state jurisdictions, typically, and I have concerns that in moments like this, we look at how to take on more rather than maybe refine and strengthen that which we’re doing well.

[00:04:28] Are we interacting with the county whose primary job this is in, in the best way possible? And the school district, I suppose.

[00:04:40] Councilor Lyndsie Leech: To answer kind of Mike’s, Mike’s thing, like, this is not mission creep. Every single dollar that we spend in prevention saves us hundreds of dollars down the line in enforcement, in crime, in suicide, in every single aspect of what we do and what we pay for in our city is going to be impacted by the youth that are growing up today and are growing into adults in the future.

[00:05:10] So we absolutely need to invest whatever we can do to support our kids. And yes, the direct services are absolutely incredible. They are like stopgap, right? But what can we do to help the entire system and help start preventing these kids from harming themselves and being so anxious that they cannot become functioning adults.

[00:05:34] Councilor Alan Zelenka: I know the city of Eugene doesn’t have a big role in this. It’s mostly county, state, school districts. But I’m interested in how we can help with the 16 Library Recreation & Cultural (Services) programs, these programs that make a difference, that make our community safe and thriving.

[00:05:49] And it goes directly to why I so strongly oppose that kind of bottom-up budget philosophy, because the benefits, which are not readily seen—If we just focus on police and fire, that’s at the expense and detriment of all these programs.

[00:06:07] And what I’m interested in is: How do we do more of this stuff? How do we rejigger the budget? How do we make this a bigger priority within what the city does, even though it’s not our primary responsibility?

[00:06:21] Councilor Randy Groves: I am very interested, as Councilor Clark said, of learning more about, you know, what is the county doing and how do we better work with the county? They are our partners. They may not be adequately funded either. In fact, I’m sure they’re not, but they are the ones that are charged with a lot of the mental health work. They’ve got the trained professionals. We don’t. How do we better leverage that resource and use it towards some of the things that Josh brought out in his presentation?

[00:06:53] Councilor Greg Evans: This situation really hits home for me personally. In January, my next door neighbor’s son committed suicide. And this young man grew up with my sons and my daughter and our families had Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner, birthdays together, you know, I coached their kids, they coached mine.

[00:07:16] And then six months later, my son’s best friend committed suicide.

[00:07:22] And so the impact that the inadequacy of the mental health services that we have in this community is deeper than some of us might think, and it’s closer than what a lot of us realize. When those two situations happened to the families that I’m talking about, it literally destroyed those families.

[00:07:46] So whatever we can do to collaborate with our partners at the county jurisdictionally and otherwise, to provide more support that our communities need and our school districts need, is a critical piece here.

[00:08:05] I thank the Bethel School District for opening up the Willamette auditorium for a memorial service for the young man that went to Willamette, went to Bethel schools, that died next door, next door to me…

[00:08:21] How are we creating more points of access to mental health and community services for these groups, whether that be youth of color or LGBTQ, specifically, since we have some real issues with aberrant behaviors going on in schools towards youth of color and towards LGBTQ youth, that I know of personally, that I’ve experienced and seen. How are we enhancing what we already have in place? And how are we growing that, given the constraints that we’re under financially?

[00:09:03] Councilor Jennifer Yeh: It’s not only the right thing to do for cities to invest in our youth, but it’s the smart thing to do. Because youth are our future, and we often say that and then we add a ‘but’ and then go on, but we shouldn’t add a ‘but.’ They are, they’re our future workers and our business owners and our elected officials and our city managers and all the things.

And not in the far distant future, in the very near future, these youth in our communities will be all of us. And whether we provide them with the tools and the environments to thrive or whether we don’t affects their future, but it affects all of our futures.

[00:09:43] I agree with the Youth Advisory Council that these numbers are probably very low. From my own experience, from interactions with my children and my children’s friends, and knowing about the continued stigma of admitting some of these things, yeah, I’m sure it’s much higher.

[00:10:00] so I guess my question for you is. How can I be helpful for you today? How do we help you?

[00:10:09] Councilor Mike Clark: I really appreciate Randy’s and Greg’s comments, because I think they come very close to where I was trying to go, which is to a degree, a form of Jennifer’s question: How best can we help you leverage the relationship with our partners and the work that they do in order to see best outcomes from all of us, all municipalities, all jurisdictions working together as a team?

[00:10:36] I’ve seen a couple of different emails now about how much money we’re putting in and budgeting towards library. I’ve seen a graph by the Eugene Library Foundation and the Friends of the Library that shows $0 general fund dollars in last year’s budget and this next towards the library. I’m very interested in knowing if they’re putting out such information, is it true?

[00:11:02] Councilor Lyndsie Leech: I apologize if it seemed like I was yelling at everybody earlier. I just am so passionate about this particular issue, I could yell from the rooftops. But I’m just so deeply appreciative that we can talk about it today.

[00:11:16] We’ve talked a lot about the partnership with the county and absolutely that’s so incredibly important. But I want us to think a little bit more outside-the-box, because our mental health isn’t just tied to availability of therapists, right?

[00:11:31] I’m really talking about preventative work, which is community-building and connection-building and reducing isolation and bringing people back together. And we have that unique capacity where the county isn’t doing that direct city level work. So that their work is incredibly important and our work is also incredibly important.

[00:11:57] And as a city, we really are tasked with the safety of our people, and we talk about our law enforcement, our fire, our public works, our roads. These are all things that are specifically focused on keeping our people safe, and we are talking today that our children are not safe.

[00:12:11] They are not safe from our digital world, each other, and themselves, and that’s devastating, right? And so to be able to focus on that and say, ‘Where can we be impactful?’ I think is of the utmost importance to us as we are building our future.

[00:12:28] We have all these beautiful community centers. We have all these beautiful community spaces. How can we continue to use those effectively, within our budget or bringing in additional dollars, can we utilize those spaces to continue to build community, to bring in more parenting- or youth-focused work and workshops and classes, or what can we do more of that wouldn’t really put us outside of the realm of possibility with our budget?

[00:12:59] Councilor Matt Keating: I join my colleagues in wanting to keep our community safe, especially our youth. And as the biggest killer in our community, in our region, in our country, is firearm-related, I’m alarmed that the second-highest cause of death among youth ages 5 to 18 is suicide. So from safe storage to tougher background checks to realistically creating firearm-free public spaces remain items of policy change that I continue to support and champion and long to advance…

[00:13:32] I would hope that we would stand with our Lane County Behavioral Health specialists and partners for increased funding and outreach. I appreciate the overview you’ve provided and I would add, though it may not necessarily be our role as a local government, it’s our shared responsibility as a society to destigmatize mental health support.

[00:13:51] Mayor Lucy Vinis: We do have an obligation to pay attention to what the youth are struggling with in this community and I think have such a strong foundation in LRCS and the programs that Josh has described to do that work. And, I think, a short-term crisis should not define a long-term solution. You know, the long-term solution is: How do we invest in our youth? The short-term crisis is: How do we come up with adequate funding to do that?

[00:14:17] Presenter: As the city struggles to close a budget gap, several councilors ask for closer coordination with Lane County as a way to support the library’s vitally important services for youth.