Host Karen James speaks with Janie Gullickson, Executive Director, and John Karp-Evans, Deputy Director, Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon (MHAAO). While the Oregon Legislature has in recent years provided funding for mental health & addiction treatment and services, Oregon remains nearly last in the nation to provide adequate care to those in need. In 2020 Oregonians passed Measure 110 which decriminalized certain drugs which were then recriminalized by the legislature in 2024. MHAAO continued to provide mental health and addiction services while adapting to this uncertainty. MHAAO is a community-based organization, run by peers who, while at the forefront of advocacy for services and funding, continued to use their lived experiences to change the lives of people suffering with mental illness and addiction.
The Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon is an inclusive, community-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to promote self-directed recovery and wellness for all, honoring the voice of lived experience. As a peer-run agency, we are the communities we serve; we have been down their roads and use our lived experiences to walk alongside our peers in a nonclinical but therapeutic way. We help individuals set and meet their recovery goals, such as getting into treatment, securing housing, or finding employment, and feel empowered to direct their own path forward to recovery, health, and healing.
Peerpocalypse https://www.mhaoforegon.org/peerpocalypse-2025-programs