32-bed substance abuse treatment center opens in Everett

Everett

EVERETT – A new 32-bed behavioral medicine and substance abuse treatment facility in the county youth prison opens for patients this week.

The Denney Juvenile Justice Center in Everett’s Delta neighborhood will house the two 16-bed rooms. A “jointly held” unit is aimed at adults who deal with both addiction problems and mental health problems. The other will focus on people with opioid addiction. Stays on the opioid-specific floor are likely to be between 28 and 56 days; 60 to 90 days in the addiction and mental health department.

In the first three months of this year, Washington had 418 overdose deaths, according to the Department of Health, up from 378 in the same period in 2020. Almost half of those were fentanyl related. Overdoses are increasing in all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds, but the increases were most pronounced in people of color, according to the Department of Health.

“For a county now over 800,000 people, we have no inpatient facilities for needy, low-income adults,” said Cammy Hart-Anderson, director of the county’s behavioral health and veterinary services.

Seattle-based Pioneer Human Services will lead the new facility. The provider also operates the social services center in Everett’s repurposed Carnegie Library.

Rowell Dela Cruz, the director of the treatment center at Pioneer Center North in Sedro Wooley, estimated the Everett facility would hold about 20 people at the time it opened on Monday.

The majority of the adults who volunteer there will likely be from Snohomish County, Hart-Anderson said.

You have “no doubt” that the demand for the beds will be high. Patients are referred from a variety of sources including prisons, detoxification facilities, and outpatient providers.

A common area between the men’s and women’s areas of the new 32-bed behavioral and substance abuse treatment facility at the Denny Juvenile Justice Center on Wednesday in Everett. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

The facility will have 30 to 40 staff, including a case manager who connects patients with post-stay services and accommodation, a peer counselor they can meet with daily and supportive accommodation, and employment specialists. There will also be full-time drug use counselors and behavioral medicine professionals. And there are examination rooms in which the people present can be assessed by medical coordinators.

“We definitely need more beds in our community to help these people, especially a safe place where they can learn and develop skills to learn a substance-free life,” said Dela Cruz, who runs the New Site? ˅.

This isn’t the only new facility in Snohomish County trying to alleviate the bed shortage. Earlier this month, a 24-bed mental health department opened at Everett Regional Medical Center. This facility has been operating since the opening week with 20 occupied beds in line with current staff levels, hospital spokeswoman Cheri Russum said on July 23.

The treatment is largely funded by Medicaid. Previously, patients eligible for Medicaid were sent to east Washington for inpatient care, making it difficult to connect them to local, ongoing support after leaving the facility, Hart-Anderson said.

Employees take a photo together in Everett on Wednesday in front of the new 32-bed behavioral and substance abuse treatment facility at the Denny Juvenile Justice Center. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

The new room cost $ 17.5 million. Most of it – over $ 11 million – came from the state budget. Another $ 3.3 million came from the North Sound Behavioral Health Organization. And the county raised $ 2.8 million. Construction of the plant began in spring 2020.

The two rooms – one on the first floor, the other on the second – are basically identical. More than half of the over 20,000 square meter facility was converted from juvenile detention and the rest is new. The remodeling has changed the rooms from the concrete walls and uncomfortable beds of a prison to more common areas with big screen televisions.

The facility has been in the works for several years. The project, officially called the North Sound Behavioral Health Treatment Center, began in 2017. The 130-bed youth center, built in the 1990s, was opened up as a potential location with decreasing occupancy due to reforms aimed at getting juveniles out of custody to free. In 2001, the average daily population was 84 teenagers, according to Brooke Powell, deputy administrator for the district juvenile court. Between January and June of this year, that average had dropped to four people.

Jake-Goldstein-Strasse: 425-339-3439; [email protected]. Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.

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Certified Peer Counselor Amber Morris is moving to the new 32-bed behavioral and substance abuse treatment facility at the Denny Juvenile Justice Center in Everett on Wednesday. The facility opens to patients on Monday. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

Employees take a photo together in Everett on Wednesday in front of the new 32-bed behavioral and substance abuse treatment facility at the Denny Juvenile Justice Center. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)