QuickTake:

Lane County is planning a stabilization center that will serve people in mental health and drug addiction crises.

Lane County is close to finalizing a land purchase deal for the future site of a stabilization center that will serve people in mental health and drug addiction crises. 

The county’s center is part of a coordinated venture with PeaceHealth, which is planning a psychiatric hospital at the same location in Springfield near its Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend. The county’s Lane Stabilization Center and PeaceHealth’s Timber Springs Behavioral Health Hospital will operate in separate buildings next to each other along International Way in Springfield. They will work together to serve youth and adults with different needs, ranging from a short visit for emergency help to a psychiatric hospitalization that lasts days.

The need for care is acute. Currently, Lane County youth who need psychiatric hospitalization must board in PeaceHealth’s hospital emergency room in Springfield, sometimes for a week or longer, while waiting for a bed in a Portland facility. Adults often rely on hospital emergency rooms or get care only after they are in jail. 

The county center and hospital will have room for 138 patients combined.

The culmination of the projects is more than two years away: The two facilities are not slated to open until at least late 2027 after factoring in the design, building and permit requirements for both facilities. 

Here’s a look at where the projects are and what’s next: 

Lane Stabilization Center 

In October 2024, Lane County commissioners voted to do due diligence — a final step necessary to complete a purchase of land along International Way near PeaceHealth’s Riverbend hospital in Springfield. The land is nearly 18 acres on two separate parcels, with 12.07 acres for Lane County and 5.9 acres for PeaceHealth’s facility. 

The land is located along International Way between a FedEx facility and Richardson Sports. The land, located on two parcels, is currently leased out and used to farm hazelnuts.

The terms of the property sale, estimated at $7.8 million, won’t be finalized until after the review is completed in August. 

Britni D’Eliso, the center’s project manager, said the facility will serve as a regional emergency room for people facing a mental health or addiction crisis. 

No appointment will be needed. The center will be open 24 hours every day and people can arrive and ask for help. 

Patients could also enter with help from others, like law enforcement officials who bring people in who need mental health care instead of a jail cell. 

Whatever the circumstance, the center will serve as a hub that treats people and helps them access follow-up care, which could be a hospital stay with PeaceHealth or treatment from an outpatient provider or access to a residential facility. 

“The goal is that if somebody needs that hospital level of care, ideally the Lane Stabilization Center is the receiving point,” D’Eliso said. “People don’t have to stop and think, ‘Which facility do I need to go to?’” 

The center would have space for up to 42 people, whether for visits of less than a day or overnight stays. That includes an estimated 14 recliners, for patients who need stays of less than 24 hours, allowing a spot for them to decompress while staff keep an eye on their well-being. The final figure is dependent on licensing allowances.

Some beds would be available for adults who need to stay longer. Stays could be five to seven days on average or longer if necessary to line up logistics like transportation or follow-up care, D’Eliso said.

The county’s goal is for people to have a plan for care when they leave and return to their communities.

“There’s time to arrange transportation support,” D’Eliso said. “So if they’re coming from Cottage Grove or Oak Ridge, there will be the time needed to ensure that they have a way to get back.”

The final piece will be 12 beds or recliners for youth under 18. The breakdown is not set at this point, but some of those slots will be for youth who need to stay overnight, D’Eliso said. The facility’s final figures on beds and recliners are dependent on what the facility’s license allows.

In the works for a decade

The county has eyed the possibility of a center for more than a decade.

In 2014, Lane County identified the need for a center. For years, officials and staff considered the idea, but no one was devoted to the project full-time, and employees did that work in addition to their other roles. In 2022, the county hired D’Eliso as its full-time project manager to shepherd and coordinate the work.

Last year, PeaceHealth officials approached Lane County officials with the idea of co-locating behavioral health services. 

In response, the county started to consider land near the hospital in Springfield and ended its plans for a center at county-owned property at its health and human services campus along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Eugene. 

Hurdles remain for the county to fully fund the project. 

The project has secured $16.9 million in a combination of funding from county, state, and federal sources. Trillium Community Health Plan, a Medicaid insurer, also provided $922,000. 

Two years ago, the project’s budget for startup costs was $30 million. A more recent estimate isn’t available. The land purchase price will come from a separate county fund.

D’Eliso said the county is looking at ways and strategies to raise more funding as the work continues. That could include state funding and philanthropy, she said.

After the county closes on the land, the design work can begin, a process that takes 12 to 15 months. The construction will take another 12 to 15 months.

PeaceHealth hospital 

Timber Springs Behavioral Health Hospital will mark an expansion of psychiatric hospitalization services for PeaceHealth in Lane County. 

PeaceHealth is planning a 96-bed behavioral health hospital at the site. It will replace PeaceHealth’s existing 35-bed unit in Eugene, nearly tripling the capacity in the county. 

“This is intended to get people care much sooner, so that they can start that healing process,” said Alicia Beymer, chief administrative officer of Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend. 

Another key difference: 24 of the 96 beds will serve adolescents under 18. 

Currently, there are no psychiatric hospital beds for youth in Lane County. To get care, they first wait in the hospital emergency room for days and then go to Portland for care. The long waits weigh heavily on providers planning the project. 

“That’s really in my thoughts,” Beymer said. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Looking Glass, a provider of youth services in Lane County, said the project will fill a gap. The nonprofit Looking Glass offers mental health and addiction treatment services, including residential and outpatient care. 

“The hospital, as it looks today, is not the right environment for youth,” said Chad Westphal, president and chief executive officer of Looking Glass. “Medically, they’re going to be taken care of as far as their physical bodies are concerned. But the environment really needs to be more therapeutic and very youth-specific.”

Looking Glass also runs a 24-hour emergency shelter for youth ages 16 to 24 at two sites in Eugene. Anyone who meets the age criteria can show up and ask for help. 

When the stabilization center is open, Looking Glass staff can refer people there when necessary, such as if they are too old. 

But people can also turn to Looking Glass when they exit the new center or psychiatric hospital. Westphal said Looking Glass will be one spot youth can turn to when they leave the hospital and still need help as they recover.

Like the county, planning still lies ahead. 

PeaceHealth declined to release its estimated cost for the facility, saying it would be finalized when it submits its application to the Oregon Health Authority. 

PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene’s University District shuttered in December 2023, though the hospital’s behavioral health unit will remain at the site until the new project is done.

In March, PeaceHealth put its Eugene property up for sale, but plans to lease back the space it uses for behavioral health care and other clinics that remain there.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.