Tri-Cities 1st recovery center to open soon. Take a look inside
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Columbia Valley Center for Recovery opens soon with phased roll out of care units.
- Facility offers no-wrong-door access, crisis stabilization, detox and future housing.
- Project funded by local and state sources; operations via sales tax, opioid settlements
The Tri-Cities first recovery center is inching toward its anticipated late spring opening, with a plan in place to begin ramping up services.
Construction is set to wrap up at the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery, in the old Kennewick General Hospital, within the next month and a half. After that, Comprehensive Healthcare will get its keys to the facility and begin training staff.
Benton County leaders are hoping to host an April 17 grand opening with state lawmakers, local leaders and advocates who helped make the recovery center a reality.
The facility should open to mental health and drug recovery patients in May.
The project is the result of years of hard work from community members, elected officials and healthcare partners on the Benton Franklin Behavioral Health Advisory Committee.
What services will it offer?
Short-Term/Sobering — A 23-hour observation unit that focuses on stabilization and sobering up. This unit will be structured like a living room setting with pods for recliners. Patients will be assessed here to determine longer care needs.
Crisis Stabilization — This unit is designed for clients whose primary diagnosis is mental illness related. Services will include assessment, diagnosis and treatment for those without the need for longer stays. Typically, they’ll spend five days or fewer here, but longer stays can happen voluntarily or by court order.
Withdrawal Management — This unit will provide secure withdrawal management and stabilization services. Patients will be assessed, stabilized and cared for while detoxing. There will be two levels of detox, one with monitoring and patient administered medication and the other with 24-hour medical care by nurses and doctors.
Residential Substance Use Treatment — This unit will be for longer-term substance use treatment. The length of the stay will depend on ongoing assessments and progress toward treatment goals.
Tiered opening
Comprehensive is planning a tiered approach to ramping up services, according to recent discussions with Benton County leaders.
The residential wing will fully open in May, along with half of the crisis stabilization beds and about half of the recliners used for short term/sobering care.
Then in June they plan to fully open the remainder of the beds and recliners for crisis stabilization and short term/sobering care.
At that point, the plan is to open half of the withdrawal management beds, with the rest opened about a month later.
Who will it serve?
The Columbia Valley Center for Recovery is designed to be a “no wrong door” treatment center.
That means they will serve anyone with a need, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. This approach is critical for law enforcement intervention. It means people who actually need medical care will not be turned away and just sent to jail. It will allow officers to bring in someone in crisis without having to involve them in the criminal justice system.
Because it is a publicly-owned facility, services are available to anyone who is able to come in. There is no geographic restriction, despite being owned by Benton County. The broader name of the facility was decided on because it will serve a larger regional need.
That doesn’t mean Tri-Cities tax dollars will be paying for people out of the area, though.
Comprehensive Healthcare will manage reimbursements, and relatives staying in the area while a loved one is treated will be contributing to the local economy. The facility will be open to the public, meaning anyone can voluntarily seek services. There also will be involuntary treatment through court orders for people in active crisis.
There will be a public entrance and a dedicated first responder entrance where police or EMTs can bring in patients in a secure manner.
What about the rest of the space?
There’s plenty of room for growth at the nearly 200,000-square-foot facility. For perspective, the building is about 10,000-square-feet bigger than the new larger second Costco in Richland.
The initial footprint is being built out in the newest portions of the hospital, largely the former Trios Birthing Center area. Benton and Franklin counties also recently agreed to split an $11 million bill for “betterments” for the first construction phase.
That cost includes building a full commercial kitchen, a 5,000-square foot expansion of the program area, an outdoor courtyard area, converting some of the planned dual rooms into single rooms for the in-patient treatment programs and upgrades to the aging hospital’s generators.
It also includes some money for security improvements and landscaping.
While the plans for the facility include plenty of options for future additions, the county is actively pursuing one plan to kick off phase two.
Benton County had secured about half of the $7.4 million needed to help fund converting 14,000 square feet of old hospital rooms on the second floor into 17 double occupancy apartments.
Recent discussion has shifted that plan to building a separate facility, more like residential housing, which will be significantly cheaper but on the same campus.
By building it separately, they’ll be also able to add a few more rooms and save $3 million on the project. There also would be an apartment for an on-site program manager. That savings puts them right at the funding goal to get started.
This is where the Daniel’s Den kitchen and dining area will be built, which was made possible by a $1.1 million donation from Darrel and Melody Otness in honor of their son.
The advisory committee expects the residential portion to be complete around March 2027.
Youth mental health and addiction services also are part of long-term plans for the facility. Those aren’t included in the initial services because the adults and youth have to be treated separately.
Other services included in the preliminary plans could eventually include day treatment for youth and adults, a technical skills classroom, art therapy and library rooms, eating disorder treatment and intensive outpatient treatment.
The second floor could be used for more transitional housing, respite/diversion beds and youth inpatient and children’s long-term treatment. The second and third floor of the Spaulding offices will be set aside for future office use.
How is it being paid for?
Construction is expected to wrap up between $23 million to $27 million, with another $11 million already approved for the “betterments,” which are quality of life improvements and will allow for more of the treatment rooms to be built for single occupants, and add a commercial kitchen.
The most recent update on construction progress indicated the project is slightly ahead of schedule and under budget.
That doesn’t include the cost of design and construction for the recovery housing, most of which is now secured with the significant savings from changing the approach to how it will be built.
Turning the shuttered hospital into a state-of-the-art place for anyone in need to get help with mental health and addiction issues in the area has been a monumental task for Tri-Cities leaders and a group of dedicated volunteers.
Several community members and groups have also made significant donations to improve the quality of life at the facility.
Operational funding will be paid for through mental health and chemical dependency sales taxes in Benton and Franklin counties, as well as supplemented by state opioid lawsuit settlements which send annual payments to cities and counties. The county paid $1.8 million to buy the old hospital and another $5 million was spent on a building at the old Welch’s Juice plant downtown. The county ultimately chose to set the second building aside for other uses.
Most of the $42.5 million already secured came from local and state money.
The total project is nearing $50 million in committed funds, with funding recently announced for new projects.
