As never before, mental health services are needed by more and more people across Lane County.

Here in the heart of Oregon, part of our community’s answer to meeting those urgent needs comes in the form of a partnership between Lane County and PeaceHealth.

In 2024, it was announced that the two would create an integrated behavioral health campus with:

  • The Lane Stabilization Center, a 42-bed/chair facility for all ages.
  • PeaceHealth’s Timber Springs Behavioral Health Hospital, a 96-bed inpatient psychiatric hospital, including 24 beds specifically for adolescents. The goal is to open both facilities in 2028.

Why here and why now?

Oregon ranks among the lowest in the nation for access to behavioral health services for both adults and youth. Lane County’s prevalence of mental illness is among the highest in the state.

Behavioral Health Hospital Rendering 2. Credit: Waltasti, Joseph

NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Illness, reports:

  • 1 in 5 adults and 1 in 6 adolescents experience a mental illness in their lifetime.
  • It takes an average of 11 years between initial symptom onset and treatment for mental illness.
Adam Burch, DO, Medical Director of PeaceHealth’s Behavioral Health Unit/Inpatient Behavioral Health Services. Credit: Amiran White

To put it in perspective, of about 400,000 residents in Lane County, nearly 70,000 may, at some time, experience a mental health condition.

“Eugene and Springfield have dealt with long wait times and a limited number of psychiatric beds for quite some time. We’re still dealing with no local beds for adolescent patients with psychiatric needs,” says Adam Burch, DO, Medical Director of PeaceHealth’s Behavioral Health Unit/Inpatient Behavioral Health Services. 

“Timber Springs will help to serve these needs in our community, and in greater cooperation with our county partners,” he says.

How the new co-located campus will transform care

The integrated behavioral health campus will serve our entire community with:

  • A preventive approach to mental health care.
  • An alternative option for first responders to take someone in a mental health crisis to the stabilization center, rather than an emergency room.
  • Walk-in, 24/7 access to the stabilization center.
  • Expanded services for all ages.
  • Immediate medical and psychological care.
  • Social services to connect clients for other needs.
  • A tie-in with 988 crisis line, mobile crisis teams and the hospital to complete the continuum of care.

Care until new facilities open

The Lane County Behavioral Health Division provides an array of services including Lane County Behavioral Health Clinic and Lane County Treatment Services.

Alicia Beymer, Chief Administrative Officer at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend.

PeaceHealth offers a 35-bed inpatient unit at University District that will remain open until Timber Springs opens. PeaceHealth also provides crisis services through its emergency department, outpatient counseling, peer support, intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization and transitional services, and is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic.

“I can see a viable pathway toward reducing the profound impact of the mental health crisis in Lane County,” says Alicia Beymer, Chief Administrative Officer at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend. “PeaceHealth looks forward to partnering with Lane County Health and Human Services to bring hope, healing and wellness to our community.”

Read fact sheet on co-located behavioral health campus.
Watch leaders describe the project.
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