Here are to related stories. I am overwhelmed due to the news and my poor health.
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Posted inGovernment & Politics
Eugene plans to seek another provider, similar to CAHOOTS, to reach people in crisis
by Ben BotkinNovember 7, 2025
QuickTake:
In April, the nationally acclaimed CAHOOTS program, which offered an alternative to police response for people in crisis, ended in Eugene. Now, city officials are looking for ways to bridge gaps in service and take the burden off police and fire responders.
Eugene leaders are planning a new service in the city that would take the pressure off paramedics and police officers who respond to people suffering from mental health or drug addiction crises.
The people in crisis would fit a certain criteria: They need a connection to a shelter, recovery services or other help — not an ambulance trip to the hospital or a ride in a police car to jail.
The plan comes after Eugene conducted an analysis of its needs after CAHOOTS stopped operating in Eugene in April, citing financial reasons and ending its more than three decades of operation. Through CAHOOTS, two-person teams helped thousands in the city navigate through crises and access alternative services other than a hospital emergency room or jail cell.
Since CAHOOTS ended service in Eugene, city police and fire officials said, the number of calls from people in crisis has not increased. But what has changed, they said, is that first responders, including police officers and paramedics, now must handle calls — or spend more time on calls — that in the past they could hand off to CAHOOTS.
Thursday, city officials said they plan to request proposals from potential providers, a formal step needed before Eugene can contract with a provider.
Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Michael Caven said first responders now need to assist people experiencing challenges, including homelessness and chronic mental health needs, and help them navigate to the appropriate service.
For example, Eugene-Springfield fire crews responding to an individual in the past could notify CAHOOTS when they realized the person needed connection to social services, not a hospital, freeing up engines for the next call.
“In the absence of CAHOOTS, that option does not exist in the same manner,” the report said.
At times, police cars need to take people to shelters or other services. But a service like CAHOOTS would be a better fit, the officials said, for those kinds of calls.
“My patrol officers every single day are responding to things or hearing about things, or having something on their call screen that they can’t get to, that they think is a nice fit,” Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said.
Caven said the landscape for crisis response has changed over the years, as more providers and programs are available. For example, Lane County operates a mobile crisis service people can contact for help.
But, he added: “There’s more stability in the system if we’re not relying on one single resource to do everything that’s out there.”
Under the CAHOOTS model, two-person teams — an emergency medical technical and mental health crisis worker — responded to calls. That work started in 1989, when White Bird Clinic began CAHOOTS.
The program, Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets, received national attention for its then-innovative approach as an alternative to law enforcement. White Bird Clinic still operates CAHOOTS in Springfield through a separate contract.
The city plans to put out a request for proposals for a peer navigation model that can conduct welfare checks, offer shelter support and provide transportation services to shelters, clinics and appointments. Caven said he couldn’t provide a date for when the request for proposals will go out.
“Our goal is to get it done in a reasonable amount of time,” he said. “But public contracting is not always fast.”
City officials set aside $500,000 for a service that would provide replacement services for a CAHOOTS alternative when it set the budget. The final dollar amount for the contract is not set yet, but it will be at least that much.
The new service may come through former CAHOOTS workers in Eugene who are organizing and hoping to get involved in the work. After CAHOOTS ended in Eugene, former White Bird Clinic employees who worked in the program founded Willamette Valley Crisis Care, which has the goal of continuing the program’s work and helping people experiencing trauma.
Jacob Trewe, the group’s treasurer, said the group intends to apply when the request for proposals is advertised. The former employees have decades of combined experience and are “eager to come to work,” Trewe said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
Caven, the fire chief, said the goal is to help people in a way that leads to a reduced demand for the service.
“You kind of want to put yourself out of business,” he said.
County crisis service
In Lane County, mobile crisis teams operate and help people through most of the county, including Eugene. There’s one exception: The Western Lane Crisis Response serves a primarily coastal area that includes Florence and extends to the Douglas County border.
The county’s mobile crisis teams serve people in acute crisis situations, but also help people with other needs, said Olivia McClelland, Lane County’s behavioral health clinical services manager.
That includes people who need nonemergency transportation to access services.
“We take people to treatment facilities,” McClelland said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “We take people to housing. We take people to urgent care. We take people to a variety of places.”
Since it started in August 2024, the county’s service has been dispatched to more than 4,500 calls. In October, the county’s service was dispatched to 468 calls and served 264 individuals.
The service also does follow-ups with clients within 72 hours; those follow-ups always are voluntary.
Regardless of the level of care needed, McClelland said, there’s plenty of work to go around among different organizations, including the city’s planned program.
How to get help
Eugene and other Lane County residents in need of mobile crisis services can contact Mobile Crisis Services of Lane County (MCS-LC) by calling or texting 988 or calling the 24/7 Lane County Crisis Line at 541-682-1001. The line is available for calls around the clock, and crisis teams operate from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays and on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 11 p.m.
If you call 911, operators will route calls to Lane County’s mobile crisis services if necessary. Springfield residents can call the county service. They also can contact CAHOOTS at 541-726-3714, which is available seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more information, go here:
Meet the Austrian nuns who fled a care home to break into their old convent
November 4, 20257:16 AM ET
By
8-Minute Listen
Sisters Regina, Bernadette and Rita pray at the convent chapel of the Goldenstein castle, in Elsbethen, south of the city of Salzburg, Austria, on Sept. 20.
Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images
SALZBURG, Austria — Morning Mass is underway at the chapel of Schloss Goldenstein, a convent in Elsbethen, an Austrian parish nestled between the church spires of Salzburg and the arresting backdrop of the Alps. Sister Rita is delighted to see so many people in attendance.
As Catholic congregation numbers dwindle in Austria, Sister Rita says you’d expect the church to be equally thrilled by such tightly packed pews, but 82-year-old Rita and fellow Sisters Regina, 86, and Bernadette, 88, are in their superior’s bad books.
“People are calling us the rebellious sisters!” Rita says with a giggle and a glint in her eye.
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The three Augustinian sisters — who use only their religious names — recently ran away from a nursing home and, with the help of a local locksmith, broke back into the convent that used to be their home. Rita jokes that they are octogenarian squatters.
Sister Bernadette, 88, walks back to the convent chapel of the Goldenstein castle, in the municipality of Elsbethen, south of Salzburg city, Austria, on Sept. 20.
Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images
Giggles aside, Rita says they were taken to a nursing home against their will two years ago when church authorities shuttered the cloisters as nun numbers diminished.
“When the opportunity arose to return to our beloved convent, we didn’t wait for his permission”
The parishioners who hired a U-Haul and helped the sisters stage their getaway are now joined by a whole host of locals eager to help the sisters grow old on their own terms.
Sister Rita says they simply had to act. “I wanted to speak to the prelate to tell him how unhappy we were but we couldn’t reach him,” she explains. “When the opportunity arose to return to our beloved convent, we didn’t wait for his permission. But I don’t want him to be angry with us.”
Sister Rita poses for a portrait.
Esme Nicholson for NPR
But their superior, Provost Markus Grasl, is not pleased with the sisters’ dissent. And when their getaway made headlines last month, he brought in a PR firm specializing in damage control. So Harald Schiffl now speaks on the clergyman’s behalf.
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“It goes without saying that the sisters were consulted before being moved into the nursing home,” Schiffl says. “And it’s understandable that after decades of living and working in one place, such a move is not easy.”
Schiffl explains that Sisters Rita, Bernadette and Regina were the last three remaining nuns in the cloister and that staying there was unwise as they aged. He stresses that the provost’s decision to move them was made with their best interests in mind.
But the sisters have no intention of hanging up their wimples; they entered the cloister on the understanding they would serve there — and at the adjoining convent school — for the rest of their lives.
And their reach now goes far beyond the parish; the nuns now have their own Instagram account, currently with 70,000 followers.
Schiffl, the provost’s spokesperson, says the nuns’ social media presence is unbecoming of their order and that their superiors take a dim view of it.
“Without all the media interest, a viable and sustainable solution would have been found long ago, causing far less damage to the church,” Schiffl asserts.
Sister Bernadette, 88, prays in the convent chapel of Austria’s Goldenstein castle, on Sept. 20.
Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images
But Christina Wirtenberger, one of the sisters’ former students who initiated “operation get thee to a nunnery,” says they were advised to make it public.
“We invited the press along to prevent the provost from turfing the sisters out of the convent,” Wirtenberger says. “I was told that he would not be so bold in front of the press.”
Sixty-five-year-old Wirtenberger has known the sisters since she was 10 years old. She says that while they are as headstrong and sharp as ever, they’re also vulnerable on account of their age.
When other volunteers suggested launching the Instagram account, Wirtenberger said only on the proviso the sisters gave their express permission.
Eighty-eight-year-old Sister Bernadette, who has been a nun here since 1955, takes social media stardom in her stride.
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“I think it’s wonderful that Instagram brings people to us to praise God. Sure, they’re curious to see us after all the press coverage, but what they see is our worship,” Bernadette enthuses. “So heaven uses tech to spread the word? God arranged this, not us!”
Sister Bernadette poses for a portrait on Oct. 11.
Esme Nicholson for NPR
But Bernadette is still reeling about what happened. As she climbs four flights of stairs, she says the stair lift was removed from the cloister not long after her own removal.
“I’d been in hospital for two weeks and, when I was discharged, I thought I was returning home to the convent,” Sister Bernadette explains. “But the ambulance took me to a nursing home in my nightgown. I was shocked. The provost came but didn’t speak to me. I called after him, saying I would only be obedient for a week.”
They’re accused of breaking their vows
Through his spokesperson, Provost Grasl has accused the sisters of breaking their vows. But Wolfgang Rothe — a priest and scholar of canon law — says this charge is often pitted at critics within the church.
“It’s rather telling that the church reaches for the cudgel of obedience to quash dissent,” Rothe says. “But the sisters’ vow of obedience refers to their obligation to listen to each other. It’s not about kowtowing to the powers above.”
Sisters Rita, 81, Regina, 86, and Bernadette, 88, gather in the chapel along with over a dozen of supporters and former students.
Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images
Rothe, who sits on a German Bishops’ Conference advisory board that advocates for the victims of sexual violence and abuse in the Catholic Church, says involving the media is the only way to safeguard the vulnerable.
“The church authorities fear the media like the devil fears holy water because they’d rather keep hidden what is going on behind closed doors,” Rothe says.
Behind closed cloister doors after Mass, Sister Bernadette brews an espresso and reflects on what it means to be home with Sisters Regina and Rita.
Rosamond Press 
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