Editorial | Tri-Cities health leaders must come together to deliver vital addiction services
People with behavioral and mental health disorders need help, but help is harder to find in the Tri-Cities than it should be. That will change in 2025 when a new service center comes online.
In the meantime, leaders in the recovery space should work together to overcome bureaucratic turf disputes so they can start delivering some services sooner.
The Tri-City Herald’s Cory McCoy reported good news that the years-in-the-making Columbia Valley Center of Recovery is on schedule to open by the end of next year. For local residents who struggle with addiction or mental illness — and their families — that can’t come soon enough.
Officials hope to have preliminary design plans in hand in the next few weeks. The new center will be in the old Kennewick General Hospital on Auburn Street. It will house crisis stabilization, secure withdrawal and 23-hour sobering services. Renovations could begin as soon as August.
Lourdes Health, which is leading the project, also hopes to provide residential treatment services at the hospital site.
Short-term, immediate help is a vital component of the continuum of care, but longer-term help often is necessary for acute patients to stabilize and recover from addiction.
The hitch is that LifePoint Health placed deed restrictions on the hospital property before selling it to Benton County. LifePoint wanted to prevent a competitor from offering similar services there.
It’s curious that Lourdes is heavily involved in the process to offer services but their ownership group, LifePoint, appears to be controlling the roadblock.
Leaders from Lourdes, Benton County and the Benton Franklin Behavioral Health Advisory Committee have tried to rework the restriction, but are still negotiating with LifePoint to see if that’s possible.
We hope LifePoint leaders can find a middle ground that they’re comfortable with because the most important thing is getting people help.
If more people with mental and behavioral health disorders will receive treatment at a residential center, then LifePoint should take reasonable steps to facilitate its opening.
With a year and a half to go, there is unmet demand for services in our community.
Franklin County leaders could help by approving funding for Lourdes to open a sobering center at its Pasco campus. State licensing might slow things down, but the first step is securing the money.
That out-patient sobering center could continue even after the Columbia Valley Center of Recovery opens next year. There almost certainly is enough need in the two counties for two sobering centers.
Sobering centers are voluntary facilities that serve as a first step for recovery. People stay for less than a day and work with staff who can connect them to longer-term care for substance use disorders.
Some preliminary work is already underway at the old Kennewick General Hospital. Benton County is repairing damage caused by vandals since the 70-year-old hospital became vacant about two years ago.
Substance use disorders are killing people all over Washington, and overdose rates have increased dramatically in recent years.
The rate of opioid deaths in Franklin County was nine times higher in 2022 than it was 20 years earlier. In Benton County, it was three times higher.
It’s not just homeless residents living on the streets who struggle with drugs but our neighbors, family members and friends.
Don’t let a deed restriction prevent them from getting the help many so desperately need.
