Deschutes County working on Stabilization Center

Deschutes County officials want to serve our community better by updating and reorganizing their facilities and adding a special facility to help those who suffer from mental health or substance abuse issues.

Three agencies share the Public Safety Campus off of Highway 20 in Bend: the Deschutes County Sheriffs Office, Parole and Probation and Juvenile Justice. Together with Deschutes County Behavioral Health, they’re working to add health services through a Stabilization Center.

Sheriff Shane Nelson said the only resources officials often have now in such situations are the hospital and the jail.

“(The Stabilization Center) can remove a vulnerable population set from the jail, criminal justice programs or criminal justice process, because their intention is not to commit the crime. So we want to give them services that will help them become productive citizens,” Nelson said Monday

“Another thing is that they don’t always belong in the emergency department at the hospital. Maybe they can get a better set of services that suits them better at a center such as the Stabilization Center.”

There are two challenges to this goal, though. First, officials want to run the center 24/7, but as of now, they only have enough funding to provide services part-time. Second, there’s no secured location for the Stabilization Center. The building officials want to use is currently occupied.

That’s where Phase 1 of the Public Safety Campus master plan comes in. It largely focuses on changes to the Parole and Probation building.

Currently, parole and probation services are split between two buildings. That means two sets of receptionists, duty officers and anyone involved in day-to-day operations. The second building they use, the programs building, used to belong to an insurance company, so its layout is not helpful for what officials need. That second building is where officials want to set up the Stabilization Center.

The first phase of the master plan would reorganize these spaces and create a more effective workflow.

People get arrested in both of these buildings every day. That means if someone comes in for processing and ends up getting arrested through use of force, people can get hurt. One of the office’s most active areas is a small space where people come in for drug tests.

“Sometime’s they’re cooperative, sometimes they’re not, but we end up making arrests here,” Community Justice Director Ken Hales said. “So what you attempt to do in designing that space is doing it so that kind of activity is isolate it to an area that you can get staff around, and take care of the event safely and away from regular administrative business or support business.”

Nelson added, “I think everyone in their personal lives knows someone, or is related to someone, who has either a substance issue or a mental health issue. I think it affects everyone in today’s society to some degree.”

Nelson said realistically, the best-case scenario would be to remodel an existing building. He said even if that happens, though, it’ll be at least eight to 12 months before the Stabilization Center can open.