NEWPORT – With background work mostly done, more visible work is now underway on Lincoln County’s first in-patient drug treatment center.
The $11.7 million project is converting a former adult foster care home on Northwest Biggs Street in north Newport into an 8,300-square-foot facility with 16 inpatient beds to serve adults ages 18 and older seeking treatment for substance abuse.
The property is owned by the Pacific Communities Health District with Samaritan Health Services providing staffing and services under a long-term operating agreement.
Remodeling of the existing building and construction of added space is scheduled to be finished in the spring of 2025. Once completed, residential treatment and intensive outpatient programs include group and individual therapy, medication-assisted treatment and peer-delivered services.
Patients will be accepted from across Oregon, with priority given to Lincoln County residents. There are currently no inpatient services in Lincoln County and limited outpatient services available.
This is the Samaritan’s second residential treatment center; the first opened in 2020 in Lebanon.
In a news release, Samaritan Health said Oregon ranks second in the nation for substance use disorder and 50th in access to treatment. Inpatient treatment is a critical first step in the recovery process for many individuals.
“A ton of work has taken place in the background to bring us to this point where we can actually see the work happening,” Dr. Lesley Ogden, chief executive officer of the two Samaritan Health Services hospitals in Lincoln County said in a news release. “I am relieved the project is moving along, yet there is also an undercurrent of ‘Hurry, hurry’ because the need is so great. I cannot stress strongly enough how important this center will be to the lives of those people who choose a path toward recovery and can find hope and help here in Lincoln County.”
Recent news coverage has quoted Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and the Oregon Health Authority saying that the state needs nearly 3,000 beds to meet the need for residential substance use disorder treatment.
Work currently includes creating an access driveway along the north property line, removing trees, stumps, shrubs and rubbish from a site, digging footings for the new two-story addition and working on underground utilities.
Samaritan has hired a business director and a clinical supervisor. The facility’s medical director is Dr. David Simmons, who will oversee the Newport and Lebanon facilities. Samaritan said interviews for a clinical director are underway, and the remainder of frontline staff and support staff will be hired when the facility is closer to completion.
Fundraising is through the Pacific Communities Health District Foundation and the North Lincoln Hospital Foundation, with donations coming from some local governments, tribes, public and private foundations, businesses and individuals. The Oregon Health Authority has allocated $2.9 million for the project, Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, told the PCHD foundation last fall.
Gerding Builders of Corvallis is the general contractor; Clark/Kjos of Portland is the architectural firm.
So far, Sam Health has not been a “good neighbor”. While much was promised at the “community meetings or open house” little of what was promised has materialized. Allegedly (information provided by the CEO at one of two open house/community meetings), in patient treatment will last only 2 weeks, that’s what too short of a time to be effective for most people w/meth or fentanyl addiction, at best, they’ll have gotten through the acute phase of withdrawal, next is the subacute phase, when depression and psyhosis (if present) will start to fade (for meth), doesn’t mean the person isn’t still craving the effects of meth. Outpatient treatment will be disruptive for a residential neighborhood, as anyone who’s lived or worked adjacent to an A & D treatment center will know. There were other, better sites, located in commercial area and closer to the hospital. And one of the “stumps” referred to is taking down a Sitka spruce in the park, which SamHealth claims is “sick” and needs to come down. Sam Health hasn’t offered to plant a new tree anywhere in the park or on its property or provide a landscape barrier between its property/parking lot and at least 4-5 homes.
This article has a factual error that needs your attention and correction. Despite what Samaritan press releases say, this facility will not be the first in patient drug treatment facility in Newport. For many years, in-patient treatment was offered by the private non-profit Lincoln County County Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse at Trueman Recovery Center. It operated as a state licensed residential treatment center in Newport for several years before lack of state and local funding support forced its closure in 2013. Also, back in the late 1970’s to early 1980’s there was in-patient treatment offered for a time at Pacific Communities Hospital before our tax supported Pacific Health District board of directors sold out to Samaritan Health Systems in Corvallis. Please set the record straight. Thank you.