State v. Bolander , 178 Or. App. 514 ( 2001 )

KISTLER, J.

The trial court committed appellant to the custody of the Mental Health Division because it found that, as a result of a mental disorder, she was unable to provide for her basic needs.¹ On appeal, appellant argues that the record does not support the trial court’s finding. We review de novo and affirm.

Appellant is a 36-year-old woman, who suffers from a combination of medical conditions. She is diabetic and has been instructed to follow a special diet to control that condition. She also suffers from bipolar disorder. As both examiners explained, as a result of her disorder, she displays a “[plsychotic thought process.” She is paranoid and delusional and lacks insight into her physical and mental problems.

Appellant’s only source of income is Social Security. She had been a tenant at a rooming house for approximately a year before the hearing. She had, however, experienced some problems at the rooming house. The manager testified that he had received “multiple complaints” that appellant had been going through the hallways naked and “pounding on people’s doors close to midnight or sometimes after midnight.” Sometime before the hearing, appellant had “destroyed her room.” As a result of a domestic disturbance, she had “knocked over the door of the room next door to her, and she claimed that she accidentally shattered the window because the woman who lived next door shared the same boyfriend with her.”

Appellant’s own room is “disheveled.” Her clothes are “everywhere on the floor, and the smell is overwhelming.” As the manager explained, even when appellant’s door was closed, lie could smell what he described as a “very overpowering” odor of urine coming from her room. The specific incident that gave rise to this hearing occurred in late June. According to appellant, she smelled smoke as she was getting out of the bathtub. She tried to get out of her room but could not open the door.² She leaned out the window and began yelling “9-1-1, 9-1-1.” She told the manager of the rooming house, and her neighbor confirmed, that she got out of the window and onto the roof. As the manager explained, “[s]he was on the roof undressed shouting ‘fire.’ ” There was, however, no fire.

After that incident, the manager gave appellant a 30-day eviction notice.³ She also was taken to a mental health facility as a result of the incident and placed on an emergency psychiatric hold, which resulted in a precommitment investigation. Appellant told the precommitment investigator that she had had a baby while she was being taken into the mental health facility. When the investigator questioned that statement, appellant explained that “she started having babies when she was 4 years old.” During the course of that investigation and also during the hearing, appellant denied that she had any mental health problems, refused to discuss her medications, insisted that she was eating correctly to manage her diabetes, and refused to discuss what she would do when, in a month, she would be evicted from her apartment. The evidence showed, however, that appellant suffered from a mental disorder, that she had no plan where she would go when she was evicted, that she was not taking her medications, and that she was not aware of what she should eat to control her diabetes.

The trial court described appellant’s demeanor during the hearing. It noted that she

“is unable to focus on the salient and appropriate aspects of the conversation or respond appropriately, and she’s unfortunately having outbursts here in court which involve extreme emotional shifts from laughter to crying, which she doesn’t appear to be able to control but which appear to be sort of a safety valve for her.”

Both examiners confirmed those observations. One examiner noted that “[s]he is tearful then happy. Paranoid, believes people are out to get her.” The other observed that she was sometimes “gleeful” but that, “[w]hen talking about her meds, she sounded as if she was about to break into tears. She wouldn’t talk about, discuss, her medications.” (Emphasis in original.)

Both examiners concluded that appellant was a danger to herself and unable to provide for her basic needs. One explained that she has an “[inability to plan — exercise judgment with a degree of insight and a delusional system that keeps her from seeing things as they are[ — ] describe [sic] a continuing inability to keep out of harm’s way.” The other concluded:

“Manic presentation with psychotic thought process featured by significant paranoid delusions. Impaired judgment and insight that prevent [her] from meeting basic needs. Unable to maintain physical and mental health due to untreated mental disorder.”

The trial court agreed that appellant suffered from a mental disorder and was unable to meet her basic needs. It accordingly ordered that she be committed to the custody of the Mental Health Division for no more than 180 days.

A person is mentally ill within the meaning of ORS 426.005 if he or she is unable to meet his or her basic needs because of a mental disorder. State v. Johnson, 117 Or App 237, 239-40, 843 P2d 985 (1992). Basic needs include food and shelter. Id. In Johnson, the appellant had no place to stay, no plan of where she would go, and was seriously malnourished when she was not under a doctor’s care. Id. at 240-41. We explained that her mental condition “impaired] her ability to recognize that shelter is a basic need.” Given those facts, we found on de novo review that the appellant was unable to meet her basic needs. Id.

This case is similar to Johnson. Here, appellant was about to be evicted. There was no evidence that she had any place to go after she was evicted, nor was there any evidence that any place would accept her in her current condition. When asked what she planned to do, she refused to say because she did not want people following her around. She explained only that, when she was evicted, she would “[g]o home, get my keys off the roof, keep packing, [and] go to the grocery store.” Appellant refused to recognize that she had a mental illness and refused to discuss whether she was taking her medications. She also had no insight into what she should eat to control her diabetes. Although she testified that she had learned what she should eat, she explained that the appropriate diet for diabetes was “[a] big Hershey bar.”

As both examiners explained, appellant’s mental disorder keeps her from having any insight into either her needs or how they should be met. Rather, when left on her own, she has taken actions that have put her in harm’s way. When she mistakenly believed that her building was on fire, she could not manage to unlock the door from the inside; she ended up instead on the roof without, among other things, any shoes on, shouting “fire.” Although she did not slip and fall, she put herself in a situation that can only be described as inherently dangerous. Given her delusional mental state, her lack of any plan to obtain housing after she is evicted, and her lack of insight into what she needs to do to protect herself in an unstructured environment, we agree with the trial court that this record establishes by clear and convincing evidence that appellant is unable to meet her basic needs. See State v. Jayne, 174 Or App 74, 82, 23 P3d 990, rev den 332 Or 316 (2001); Johnson, 117 Or at 240-41.

Affirmed.

1 ORS 426.005(l)(d) provides, in part:

“ ‘Mentally ill person’ means a person, who, because of a mental disorder, is one or more of the following:

“(A) Dangerous to self or others.

“(B) Unable to provide for basic personal needs and is not receiving such care as is necessary for health and safety.”

2 Appellant apparently could not release the lock on the inside of the door.

3 Appellant previously had given notice that she was leaving.