Ontario nonprofit plans major expansion in addiction, mental health services

By Antonio Sierra (OPB)
Dec. 3, 2024 1:09 a.m.

Lifeways seeks $15 million from state to get Project Hope off the ground

In a region with a desperate need for more mental health and drug treatment services, an Ontario nonprofit thinks it can make a dent in the issue, not only in Eastern Oregon, but across the entire state.

Behavioral health organization Lifeways is applying for $15 million in state funding to open two treatment facilities in Ontario. Dubbed Project Hope, Lifeways aims to open 64 beds dedicated to substance use treatment, transitional housing and “crisis respite” care near the Oregon-Idaho border.

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“We are a border town, but we’re also a poor community,” Lifeways CEO Steve Jensen said. “And as a poor community within the state of Oregon, these will be services that our community desperately needs.”

While Project Hope could greatly expand treatment services in Eastern Oregon, Lifeways still has to secure money from the state to meet its projected groundbreaking date in the spring. Oregon Health Authority spokesman Timothy Heider wrote in an email that the funding comes from a 2023 bill that allocated $50 million to increase the capacity of psychiatric facilities. OHA has been in negotiations with Lifeways since July, he wrote, and state officials hope to have an agreement in place soon.

Eastern Oregon is still dealing with the rise in fentanyl and the aftermath of Measure 110, Oregon’s short-lived drug decriminalization law. While many leaders across the region were eager to end or gut the law, they often admitted that there still weren’t many drug treatment options outside of incarceration and the criminal justice system in their home communities. Increased treatment options were supposed to complement drug decriminalization under Measure 110, but the former was a lot slower to develop than the latter. The remnants of Measure 110 are still dedicated to funding new treatment facilities and programs, but access to care remains limited or non-existent in many Eastern Oregon communities.

Jensen said Ontario and Malheur County are no different, often having to send patients as far as Portland to get care. Project Hope has buy-in from community leaders, he said, and would provide the type of services that aren’t widely available.

The county and region specifically lack beds for drug detox and withdrawals and “crisis stabilization” beds for people with mental illnesses, Jensen said.

“Right now, we do not have a location within the valley or the county for individuals that are suffering with acute mental health illness,” he said. “Their only options are the emergency department (and), if it goes that route, they can go to jail.”

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According to an Oregon Health Authority online dashboard, the state needs another 3,000 beds for behavioral health facilities within the next five years, with a particular need for residential and withdrawal management facilities for substance use disorders. The gap between the amount of present behavioral health beds and identified needs is slightly smaller east of the Cascade Mountains than it is statewide. However, addiction and mental health care are spread out over a much wider geographic base in central and Eastern Oregon, meaning access can vary significantly from community to community. For instance, Umatilla County has 143 behavioral health beds while neighboring Union County has none.

Lifeways’ proposal has changed over time. The Malheur Enterprise reported that Lifeways had initially secured $6 million in March to convert a 120,000-square-foot vacant shopping mall in Ontario into a detox and mental health center. But Jensen said Lifeways pivoted after realizing that state regulations wouldn’t allow them to concentrate too many beds in one place, leading to their idea to split Project Hope across two buildings. State documents also cite concerns over the cost of renovating the building.

Lifeways has spent decades trying to become a regional player in mental health and addiction treatment. The group began as the mental health department for Malheur County before spinning off into an independent nonprofit in 1997.

Lifeways remained the mental health care provider for Malheur County while also expanding significantly into Umatilla County. But the nonprofit would end up pulling out most of its services in Umatilla County after the board of commissioners voted to award its mental health contract to a different organization in 2021. The board argued that Lifeways wasn’t always responsive to the county’s needs as it looked to put its mental health and addiction services under one umbrella. Under the leadership of a different CEO, Lifeways formally protested the move and accused the county of taking “a gamble” with its residents’ health.

Jensen said he didn’t remember Umatilla County’s transition away from Lifeways as being contentious and characterized the event as the county simply wanting to move in a different direction. While the prior CEO may have had sharp words for Umatilla County and the provider that succeeded Lifeways, Community Counseling Solutions, Jepsen said he has good relationships with both.

“We really did work well together,” he said.

Jensen was Lifeways’ chief financial officer in 2021 and was promoted to CEO the following year. He said his organization has worked to build friendly relations with all of the mental health providers and local governments in the region, and he doesn’t anticipate the end of Lifeways’ contract in Umatilla County to be an impediment to Project Hope being a regional asset.

While Umatilla County’s decision may have stuck, Lifeways still operates facilities outside of Malheur County, including a residential treatment facility in the city of Umatilla and a psychiatric hospital in Boise, Idaho. Ontario’s proximity to the rapidly growing southern Idaho region will help Project Hope hire the staff it needs, Jensen said, but the facilities’ focus will remain on Oregon patients.

Ontario is one of the only communities in Eastern Oregon that has the population and resources to support mental health facilities of this size, Jensen said. While he anticipates many patients will come from Eastern Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge, he said they could draw residents from all across the state given how much need there is for behavioral health beds. He said Project Hope could have a similar impact to the Center for Addictions Triage and Treatment, an in-development substance use treatment center in Washington County.

Jensen said Lifeways is already working with an architect on floor plans, and should the state agree to fund the project, the organization expects to break ground this spring, with a projected opening date in late 2026. Heider, the OHA spokesman, didn’t provide a timeline for the funding but added that they intend to award Lifeways the money and are working through the final details.

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