Columbia River Gorge planning a $50 million behavioral health campus

Wasco County is planning a $50 million behavioral health campus that will provide a range of mental health and addiction treatment services. (Getty Images)

In the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon leaders are planning a campus to provide residential mental health care, addiction treatment services and a drop-in center for police to bring people in crisis.

Their work started in 2017 when Wasco County Sheriff Lane Magill gathered input from community and county leaders. Bit by bit, the money is coming together. The county now has almost enough to start building the first phase, thanks to nearly $1.7 million in funding that was announced last week by Oregon’s U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee. That money is part of nearly $40 million approved for projects across Oregon.

The first phase of the Columbia Gorge Resolution Center project, which aims to shore up services in the gorge, will cost $22 million and involve two 16-bed behavioral health residential treatment buildings. The goal is to get people into treatment and give them the care they need, preventing trips to emergency rooms or jail. The entire campus is projected to cost about $50 million, said Tyler Stone, administrative officer for Wasco  County.

“This critical investment will significantly enhance our community’s ability to address mental health needs, provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals in crisis and will reduce strain on our regional emergency rooms and law enforcement agencies,” Stone said.

The first phase of the project still needs $3 million to $4 million, Stone said. But after years of planning, officials anticipate they could start construction within a year at their site in The Dalles.

Additions planned

In the years ahead, county officials plan to raise money and add the drop-in center and addiction treatment facility. When finished, it will add enough beds to treat 48 people at a time, with expanded outpatient services in nearly 58,000 square feet of facilities in The Dalles.

Officials say the area needs these services. Though it lies outside the Portland area, it still faces urban problems like homelessness and drug addiction.

The need for beds is also acute across the state. An Oregon Health Authority study found the state needs enough beds to treat about 3,700 people at a time for mental health and addiction problems. Creating the facilities and treating an extra 3,700 people would cost up to $170 million a year over five years by adding about 650 beds annually.

“There’s just a huge gap when people need a higher level of care,” said Al Barton, executive director of Mid-Columbia Center for Living, which is Wasco County’s community health provider. “When they need acute psychiatric care, they have to go to Bend or they have to go to Portland. If they need residential services of any kind, the same.”

The provider, which also contracts to provide community mental health services in Hood County and Sherman County, is planning the project with Wasco county. The project can serve people from throughout the surrounding region.

Barton said more than 25 people will be hired to work at the facility when the first phase is completed.

Nearly $40 million in federal funding

Oregon’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, have secured more than $39 million in federal funding for 39 projects in the state to address behavioral health, health care, education and infrastructure needs.

Some of them are:

• $3 million for Central Oregon Community College to expand their campus in Madras. The funding will go toward construction on the campus for programs to prepare students for careers in health care.
• $2.98 million for the University of Oregon to create a bachelor’s level program within the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health to prepare students for pediatric behavioral health work to address critical shortages in this sector.
• $2.5 million to Clackamas County for the construction of the Center for Treatment and Recovery, a recovery center for people struggling with drug addiction. T
• $1.6 million for Lines for Life to hire additional staff and conduct youth workforce and volunteer training to expand the reach of YouthLine, their statewide youth suicide prevention program.
• $1.6 million for Lane Community College to purchase equipment for their new Industry and Trades Education Center. This project will provide apprenticeship training in construction technology, manufacturing technology and other skilled labor sectors.
• $1.5 million for the city of Portland to expand Portland Fire & Rescue’s Mobile Medication for Opioid Use Disorder pilot program to reduce overdoses.
• $1 million to the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians to purchase a mobile mammography and X-ray unit. This equipment will help tribal members in a five-county region of southwest Oregon.
• $816,000 for Valley Family Health Care, Inc. to implement medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in eastern Oregon county jails. The funding will go to sheriffs and jail medical staff to provide medication and addiction treatment counseling in Malheur, Union, Baker and Umatilla Counties.