CCS works toward acute psychiatric care center
By Terry Murry on Monday, May 16th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – Umatilla County’s new mental health and substance use disorder provider is not complacent. Board of Commissioners Chairman John Shafer said that Community Counseling Solutions wants to open an acute psychiatric care center and would like to purchase the facility that opened for six months under the county’s previous provider.
“There is a facility that Lifeways currently owns for acute psychiatric care,” Shafer said of Aspen Springs in Hermiston. “If they’re able to purchase that one, it’ll happen a lot sooner. If we have to build one, it will take a lot longer.”
Shafer said the county is also budgeting for more than one crisis counselor to be on call at a time.
“We’ve seen this a lot,” Shafer said. “We’ll see somebody in crisis in Hermiston and somebody pops up in crisis somewhere else. Our county’s 3,200 square miles, we can’t have more than one person at a time?”
Shafer said the county will also fund two crisis vans for CCS. That will allow them to transport people in crises without having to rely on law enforcement vehicles.
