A huge congratulations and thank you to the Vancouver Clinic for the opening of a new health care facility in Salmon Creek.
This is a resource that has been needed for many years, even prior to the pandemic. Now our Legislature needs to provide funding for more mental health facility beds for youths who need longer-term care. Our state does not have enough beds dedicated to youths who need intensive mental health treatment. Teens and adolescents often are held in a general hospital bed, receiving little to no treatment, for up to a month while waiting for a bed in a mental health care facility for intensive treatment.
The bottom line is that youths and adolescents are severely underserved when it comes to the treatment of mental health, and our state needs more beds to treat these youths. Thank you, Vancouver Clinic, for stepping up and helping with part of the problem.
