Pictured: Oregon State Representatives Travis Nelson and Rob Nosse visited with Washington County Commissioner Pam Treece during the tour. Nosse is chair of the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care and Nelson is vice-chair.
Now that the CATT design is complete and the buildings are in our possession, we felt it was a good time to share more details about the project with our elected leaders at both the state and federal level. Over the past few months, staff have held numerous tours and informational sessions about the project, inviting local representatives to see the sites and learn more about the planned services. Here are some of the key questions they raised, followed by responses from staff:
Why is the project taking so long? Is there anything we can do to speed it up?
This is a purpose-built project, meaning we are designing the facility to support effective and safe services rather than trying to make the services work within an existing building. Because of the extensive architectural and engineering work we are doing, the project is taking a while to move forward. We are doing everything we can to identify opportunities to shorten the construction timeline, but it simply takes time when you are managing two big renovations.
Why are the services planned to be voluntary? Why isn’t it going to be a hold facility?
We designed the services using input from many community members, including those with lived experience of receiving treatment in substance use treatment programs. We also received substantial input from public safety, community corrections, health care and community providers. Using this information, we determined that creating a warm and welcoming environment — one that invited people to return as many times as they needed — was likely to result in better outcomes than if we were to create an involuntary program.
How will the services be funded once the CATT is open?
Our Medicaid (Oregon Health Plan) partners have been supportive of this project from the beginning and are committed to funding services for their members. We expect that most people served at the CATT will have Medicaid. For all others, we will bill commercial insurance where available and use state and opioid funding to ensure services are available to all our community members who decide they are ready for help with problem substance use.
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