Proposed, for board reviewFirst 90 days for the enrollment agreement and the one-page floor with counsel review; months 4 to 6 for every roster member to complete Counseling on Access to Lethal Means, a free two-hour course (CALM)
Who joins the roster, and what every first visit includes
Every roster member would verify an Oregon license, show individual liability coverage, pass a background check, stay uncompensated beyond documented expenses and accept a cap on active cases; and every first visit would follow the same floor: a brief suicide screen, a safety plan, a voluntary storage conversation with a lockbox in hand that covers medications too, parental involvement keyed to age, and a note that records the judgment made, not an inventory of the family's guns.
Volunteer immunity in Oregon is conditional, and the conditions decide whether the network survives its first bad outcome. As we read it, the federal volunteer protection law shields a licensed volunteer acting within scope, excludes gross negligence and anyone paid more than $500 a year beyond expenses, and does not protect the nonprofit itself. Oregon’s statute protects volunteer counselors and social workers only when the charity holds a financially secure source of recovery, which in practice means insurance. An employer’s malpractice policy probably does not follow a clinician into volunteer work. The national pro bono networks that have lasted are reported to require volunteers’ own insurance and a verified license, and districts are likely to require a fingerprint check for anyone seeing a student at a school site.
Thirty-five therapists licensed by different boards will make different calls on the same risk unless the network sets a floor, and the floor has strong evidence. A 20-second screen identified nearly all at-risk youth in the study that validated it; a collaborative safety plan with follow-up was associated with far fewer suicidal behaviors and double the odds of attending care in an adult study. The third piece, keeping guns and medications out of reach during a crisis, is covered by the free two-hour CALM course. The legal frame is statute: minors 14 and older may consent to outpatient care on their own; when a self-consenting minor is at serious and imminent risk, the provider shall disclose to a parent and safety plan, with civil immunity for good faith.
For gun-owning families the floor has to be voluntary and in their words: if there are firearms at home, here is a free lockbox; here is a medication lockbox; here is the state’s brochure. The note would record that the conversation happened and a device was offered, not what the family owns.
Why we think it works
- ORS 30.792 bars damages actions against volunteer psychologists, regulated social workers and licensed counselors and therapists only when the charity holds a financially secure source of recovery, and it does not cover compensated or grossly negligent work. (Oregon Revised Statutes chapter 30 (2025 Edition), ORS 30.792, read with ORS 31.740 and..., strong evidence)
- An employer's malpractice policy probably covers only duties at the workplace, so a clinician may be uninsured for volunteer work. (HPSO (Healthcare Providers Service Organization) home page FAQ, moderate evidence)
- The NIMH ASQ screen takes about 20 seconds, identified 97 percent of at-risk youth in the NIMH study, and requires a clinician's brief assessment after any positive screen. (NIMH, Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) Toolkit, strong evidence)
- The Safety Planning Intervention with telephone follow-up was associated with 45 percent fewer suicidal behaviors and double the odds of attending outpatient care in an adult sample. (Comparison of the Safety Planning Intervention With Follow-up vs Usual Care of Suicidal..., strong evidence)
- Oregon minors 14 and older may obtain outpatient diagnosis or treatment of a mental or emotional disorder without parental knowledge or consent (ORS 109.675). Under ORS 109.680, when the provider assesses such a minor to be at serious and imminent risk of a suicide attempt but inpatient treatment is not necessary or practicable, the provider shall disclose relevant information to and engage in safety planning with the minor's parent, legal guardian, or other individuals the provider reasonably believes may be able to prevent or lessen the risk; the provider is not required to disclose to a person it reasonably believes has abused the minor or when disclosure is not in the minor's best interest. A provider who discloses in good faith under ORS 109.680, or who treats the minor in good faith under ORS 109.685, is immune from civil liability. (Oregon Revised Statutes chapter 109 (2025 Edition), ORS 109.675 and 109.685, strong evidence)
What we would do
- Write a two-page enrollment agreement: license number and board; the declarations page (the summary page of the policy) for individual professional liability coverage (arrange one broker conversation on group rates and accept the smaller verified roster as the honest number); a background check, which districts are likely to require for anyone seeing a student at a school site; attestation of no compensation beyond documented expenses; an agreed cap on active Care Network clients, starting at one to two; town, telehealth and travel willingness, ages served and languages; and an optional line for clinicians who hunt or own firearms so storage conversations can be matched.
- Verify each license on the board website at enrollment and annually; ask the fiscal sponsor to confirm in writing whether its general and professional liability coverage extends to Care Network volunteers and would cover districts as additional insured; price Nonprofits Insurance Alliance coverage once the IRS determination letter (the IRS's confirmation of charity status) arrives; no school-originated referral before the certificate of insurance is on file.
- Ask Oregon counsel to confirm the ORS 30.792 conditions are met (program spending ratio and source of recovery), draft a signed client notice explaining volunteer status, and set the rule that no stipend or honorarium is ever paid.
- Write the one-page floor: a brief suicide screen (the ASQ or Columbia questions); a written safety plan (the Stanley and Brown model); the CALM conversation (lock it, change the combination, move the key; a relative hold mentioned once; a medication lockbox offered) with a free device in hand; safety planning with a parent under the state rule (ORS 109.680) when a self-consenting minor is at serious risk; mandatory abuse reporting (ORS 419B) where abuse is suspected; 988 or county crisis for imminent danger; and documentation that a storage conversation happened and a device was offered, never an inventory of what the household owns.
- Build an age-keyed intake checklist: under 14, parental consent before the first session; 14 to 17, a documented parental involvement plan and the youth's own authorization; 18 and over, the young adult consents; flag any clinician bound by the federal substance use confidentiality rule and use its consent variant; state that school notification duties under the district's own plan are separate from the clinician's rule.
- Make the free two-hour CALM course the floor at enrollment and the live eight-hour Oregon version optional; use the state's gun-owner-written brochure and the OSU-Cascades message, not pediatric policy language, and keep the storage conversation voluntary and universal for every first visit so no family concludes the school labeled them.
- Stock free locks and lockboxes with roster clinicians through S.A.F.E., the Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance's free lockbox program, and Bend Police, asking the High Desert Education Service District (the regional agency that supports all six school districts) and the Roundhouse Foundation, a regional funder, in writing before any school-program device moves to a private office; count clinician devices inside the Lock It Up budget.
- Replace per-visit paperwork with one annual two-question attestation per clinician at re-enrollment, verified by the coordinator.
How we would know it is working
- 100 percent of roster members with verified license, insurance declarations and background check on file before any referral
- Written insurance answer requested from the fiscal sponsor in the first 30 days, with the answer date recorded before the first referral
- 100 percent of the roster CALM trained within 90 days of enrollment
- Share of clinicians attesting that first visits included a screen, a safety plan and a device offer
- Clinicians marked open each week; zero clinicians above their agreed cap
What could get in the way
- Nonprofits Insurance Alliance insures only organizations the IRS has recognized as 501(c)(3) charities, and a fiscal sponsor may refuse to extend professional liability to volunteer clinicians seeing minors; without coverage the network cannot take a first referral.
- Get the sponsor's written answer in the first 30 days; if it is no, price a standalone policy through a broker before any referral and delay launch rather than start uninsured.
- Clinicians whose employer policy does not follow them will drop out rather than buy coverage, and a roster of 35 may become 15.
- One broker conversation on group rates, and the smaller verified roster published as the honest capacity number.
- Every first visit includes a storage conversation with a device in hand; for a kid who came in for anxiety the therapist pivots to the family's guns, and a note describing what the family owns can be read in a court hearing.
- The conversation is voluntary, opens with a free lockbox rather than a lecture, uses the state's gun-owner brochure, and the note documents that a conversation happened and a device was offered, not an inventory; Oregon law gives civil immunity for good-faith disclosure to a parent, and counsel reviews the floor.
- Clinicians may see a floor as scope creep, and a self-consenting teen's refusal of parental involvement does not change the school's own notification duties.
- Frame the floor as the minimum that protects the clinician and the young person, and state in it that school duties are separate and governed by the district's plan.
Who we would work with: Fiscal sponsor and Oregon counsel, Nonprofits Insurance Alliance and clinicians' own carriers, Oregon licensing boards, Zero Suicide Institute (CALM) and the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs (Oregon CALM), The ESD, S.A.F.E. and Bend Police (devices), Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Gun Violence Prevention Research Center (materials only)