Relating to behavioral health; and declaring an emergency.
HB 2005 is a broad behavioral health and civil commitment measure that revises Oregon’s laws governing involuntary treatment, emergency detention, assisted outpatient treatment, and competency restoration. The bill updates definitions and standards for when a person may be found to have a mental illness and need treatment, including adding a “chronic mental disorder” basis for civil commitment and clarifying the evidence courts may consider in self-danger, danger-to-others, and inability-to-meet-basic-needs determinations. It also creates a new prehearing “diversion from commitment” process that allows some people to receive intensive treatment in a hospital or approved nonhospital facility before a commitment hearing, with counsel, notice, treatment-plan requirements, and limits on how long the hearing may be delayed.
The bill also makes major changes to Oregon’s criminal competency-to-proceed system. It establishes new time limits and procedures for competency restoration in hospitals and in the community, expands the factors courts may consider when deciding fitness to proceed, and creates mechanisms for extensions, discharge planning, and secure placement decisions. In addition, it revises the state’s mental health advance directive laws by redefining incapacity for mental health treatment decisions and updating the declaration form and related procedures. The bill further addresses information sharing, firearm prohibitions and relief, tribal-state behavioral health coordination, and land-use rules to make it easier to site residential treatment facilities, crisis stabilization centers, and psychiatric hospitals. It also includes appropriations to the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Public Defense Commission and takes effect immediately under an emergency clause, with many substantive provisions operative January 1, 2026.
HB 2005 substantially amends Oregon’s civil commitment, emergency detention, assisted outpatient treatment, mental health directive, firearm-disqualification, and criminal fitness-to-proceed statutes, while repealing ORS 197.670 and creating new land-use siting rules for behavioral health facilities. It expands the authority of courts, community mental health program directors, licensed independent practitioners, the Oregon Health Authority, and the Psychiatric Security Review Board, and it adds new duties for counties, facilities, and the Department of State Police regarding reporting, transport, placement, and information sharing. The bill also creates new temporary task force and study requirements related to tribal-state forensic behavioral health interactions and appropriates General Fund money for behavioral health and public defense implementation.
The overall sentiment reflected in the votes is supportive but not unanimous. The bill advanced through committee and floor votes in both chambers with clear majorities, suggesting broad legislative backing for its behavioral health and public safety goals. At the same time, the repeated nontrivial opposition in committee and on the floor indicates meaningful concern about the scope of the changes, especially around involuntary treatment, detention, and criminal competency procedures.
The main points of contention appear to be the bill’s expansion and restructuring of involuntary treatment authority, including broader commitment criteria, the new diversion-from-commitment process, and longer or more flexible competency-restoration timelines. Likely concerns include civil liberties, due process, and the balance between treatment access and coercion, as well as whether the state has enough treatment capacity and community placements to implement the new system. The land-use provisions for siting treatment facilities and the firearm-related reporting and disqualification provisions may also have drawn concern from local governments, property-rights interests, and gun-rights advocates, while behavioral health providers and public safety stakeholders likely supported the added tools and funding.