KENNEWICK, Wash. – Benton and Franklin County commissioners are working to get an additional $11 million in funding for the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery. This project aims to improve addiction recovery and mental health services in the Tri-Cities area.
The Columbia Valley Center for Recovery is set to transform the long-abandoned Kennewick General Hospital. Starting in the middle of November, the building will undergo major renovations.
Deputy County Administrator of Benton County Matt Rasmussen said the recovery center has been in the planning stages for over two decades.
“A behavioral treatment facility that’s going to offer crisis stabilization services. There’s two levels of that. We have crisis relief and then crisis stabilization. So those are people suffering from mental health or substance use disorder crisis. So they need immediate treatment so they can come there,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen emphasized the importance of immediate treatment for those facing mental health or substance use crises. The facility will include a secure detox area and residential treatment services to assist individuals in overcoming drug use. The project’s first phase will utilize only one-third of the building.
The center will provide much-needed help for anyone in need.
“Really there’s not any specific requirements. If you’re having a behavioral health crisis, you can come there,” Rasmussen said. “We’re going to operate on what we call a no-wrong-door model. So that means you’re going to come in unless you have a major medical issue or something like that, that you need to go to an actual hospital. They’re going to take you in and assess you and assign you the appropriate level of treatment.”
The plan to establish this facility is timely for the Tri-Cities, as it is the only major metropolitan area in Washington without residential substance use treatment or a detox unit. Rasmussen says the new facility can help free up first responders in the area.
“Right now, if a first responder, law enforcement, EMS gets a call for somebody who has a mental health or said crisis, they can only take them to jail or to the hospital or they or they can’t do anything for them. And so this facility is going to provide that place for them to go,” Rasmussen said.
County administrators are still considering additional program components to include in the recovery center. They anticipate the project to be completed by December 2025.