Oregon whistleblowers say culture of silence creates ‘risk of another death’ at state psychiatric hospital

Lindsey Sande, a longtime nurse leader at the Oregon State Hospital, felt certain something terrible was about to happen.

It was March 2025 and the state’s sole public psychiatric hospital seemed stuck in a downward spiral. Between several patient escapes and specific deaths, the hospital had been out of compliance with federal quality standards for most of 2022, a few months of 2023 and most of 2024.

Sande thought they were probably out of compliance again. Multiple patients had been held in seclusion far longer than the few hours at a time that federal treatment standards recommend. She was especially worried about Kenneth Hass, a schizophrenic 25-year-old who had been held alone in a concrete room for the better part of seven months…

Read the full story at The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Photo by Sean Meagher