Clackamas County Youth Behavioral Health Program to Expand in 2025

An artist’s rendering of the planned youth residential facility at Parrott Creek Child & Family Services in Oregon City. The project will serve 40 young people when it is finished. (Courtesy of Parrott Creek/El Dorado)

A longtime provider of youth behavioral health services plans to expand its residential program that treats teens with mental health and addiction issues.

Parrott Creek Child & Family Services in Oregon City is in the midst of a construction project that will provide 40 beds for youth in Oregon City. The $29 million project broke ground in October 2023, and the new facility will open in the summer of 2025, said Simon Fulford, executive director of the Clackamas County organization.

Parrott Creek, a nonprofit organization, is expanding its services as Oregon faces high demand and unmet need for mental health care and addiction treatment services. The 25,000-square-foot expansion will allow Parrott Creek to grow from 20 beds to 40 beds. But it’s more than just doubling its size, because the expansion will allow it to adapt a third program based on youth needs, Fulford said.

“It’s doubling our capacity, but it’s tripling our service capacity,” Fulford said.

At the moment, 28 beds are dedicated to young people with a combination of mental health and addiction issues. Planners are still working out the program for the remaining 12 beds. It can serve youth struggling with mental health and addiction issues or provide respite care for youth who need time away from families.

“We really want to develop this third program based on current needs,” Fulford said.

Funding for the project comes from several sources, including $8 million from state lawmakers appropriated this year and $4 million in federal grants.

Parrott Creek has raised 80% of the money needed and secured a loan to cover up to $5 million so construction could begin. The goal is for fundraising to pay for it, Fulford said.

The organization works with children with mental health and addiction needs, including children who come from the child welfare or juvenile justice systems and children enrolled by their parents. The organization has worked with thousands of children and young people since it began in 1968.

On its 80-acre campus, Parrott Creek offers services including outpatient mental health and addiction treatment services and recovery services for parents with children in the child welfare system.

High needs across the state

In a legislative presentation last week, Oregon Health Authority officials highlighted the need for youth residential services.

A state report released in June found that Oregon needs 3,700 more beds to serve people with mental health and addiction treatment needs. But this report only shows the need for adults, not young people.

As of August, the Oregon facility had 39 beds that were operational and serving youth with addiction needs, according to a state report. Providers would have liked to serve 66, but could not for various reasons, including a lack of workers.

But the state’s licensed capacity is 85 beds, a figure that doesn’t show how many beds are available because facilities can be licensed for more than they can have.

The Oregon Health Authority is working on a system that will help it track the youth residential care system for psychiatric and substance use disorders. Chelsea Holcomb, the authority’s director of child and family behavioral health, told the Senate Health Care Committee last week.

It will show wait times, the level of care needed and where referrals are coming from, Holcomb said.

“IThis will give us a continuous, real-time look at our system,” Holcomb said.

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