SEQUIM – Health care providers on the Olympic Peninsula are celebrating the announcement that a major new behavioral health facility is coming to Sequim that will address opioid addiction and mental health issues in Clallam and Jefferson counties.

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe will be the lead developer and owner of the campus, made possible by the State legislature’s approval of a $7.2 million grant for the project. Other partners include Olympic Medical Center, Jefferson Healthcare, Forks Community Hospital and Peninsula Behavioral Health, to provide a broad spectrum of services.

Olympic Medical Center CEO Eric Lewis:

The campus will be built in two phases: Phase One will be a Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) facility, designed to address the opioid crisis in our area, which Brent Simcosky, Director of Health Services for Jamestown, agrees is at a crisis level.

Phase Two will add a 16-bed inpatient psychiatric facility. The plan also proposes setting up two small crisis stabilization programs in Port Townsend and Forks, to provide triage prior to transfer to the Sequim facility.

Jamestown has signed a contract to purchase nearly 20 acres of property in Sequim that will house the Behavioral Health Campus and will announce the location when the deal is closed.

Lewis says he thinks Phase One should be operating sometime in 2021.