Work to Begin on New Cascade Inpatient Substance Use Disorder Facility in Chehalis

16-Bed Inpatient Care Facility Set to Be Built This Summer

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People suffering from substance use disorders (SUD) will soon have a place in Lewis County to undergo voluntary inpatient recovery.

Cascade Community Healthcare will be converting the office space on the second floor of its 135 W. Main St. location in Chehalis into a 16-bed inpatient care facility.

Richard Stride, president and chief executive officer for Cascade, said in an email to The Chronicle he is “excited” about the project and that “Cascade has been planning and dreaming of building an inpatient SUD facility.”

Work for the project is slated to begin in early-to-mid-summer, with the facility’s opening being scheduled for about a year after work begins.

Participants could be people who voluntarily come following a court order or general walk-ins in need of help, “people who feel like they need to become sober or get back on their use-disorder plan,” Stride told The Chronicle. “It’ll be voluntary … The person does not have to be there. The court may order them, or it may not.”

Participants will have the opportunity for group therapy, in addition to dedicated time with SUD professionals, Stride said.

“It’ll be just like any inpatient facility,” Stride said, though the center will also perform outpatient care on the same site.

Stride said the facility has been in the planning stages for a while. The brainchild of Cascade’s Mindy Greenwood, several Cascade personnel have worked tirelessly to push the project forward over the years, he said.

“This inpatient facility has been a dream of (Greenwood) ever since she joined Cascade back in 2015,” Stride said in the email. He told The Chronicle later: “We had some hurdles we had to overcome from the City of Chehalis before we were able to go through with the project.”



While the organization is now happy that an agreement has been reached with the city, Chehalis originally had issues with the site’s zoning, along with some general reluctance, Stride said.

“The city didn’t want us getting into Main Street, where they just paved it,” he said. “And that’s the only way we can tap into the water space because we have to put sprinklers on the second floor of that building … without spending all of our money just on getting water to the facility.”

The city held a hearing about the project before its hearing examiner on Thursday, April 28, where Ron Wright, the project’s architect, spoke in defense of the project along with Stride.

The hearing examiner ultimately ruled in Cascade’s favor.

“Our project will go forward,” Stride wrote in the email. “Had this ruling not been favorable to Cascade the project would have to be stopped-probably never to be completed.”

Stride wanted to be sure to thank Ron Wright, project manager, for his guidance and leadership as Cascade navigated the process with the city.

Now that the project has a way forward, Cascade can provide an essential service to the people of Lewis County, Stride said. 

“The main reason why I wanted to have the in-patient facility here is because it’s pretty far for people to go if they go on a voluntary basis into some sort of treatment. They would either have to go south or north (and) sometimes even across the mountains to get treatment,” Stride said.

“I wanted to make sure that Lewis County residents had a place to go, rather than having to go out of town, where their families may or may not be able to visit them on a regular basis.”