Press release from: Clackamas County Sheriff's Office 

Above: Melinda Howard (right) and Dr. Jenna Hiestand lead Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts on a tour of Kaiser's new
Brookside residential treatment center. Work is still underway on the facility, which is slated to open June 11. 

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Clackamas County Sheriff Roberts tours new Kaiser mental-health treatment center

SUNNYSIDE -- On Friday, April 25, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts toured Kaiser Permanente's new Brookside Center -- a 40-bed residential treatment center at its Sunnyside Campus.

Roberts was examining how the new facility could help the Sheriff's Office serve Clackamas County residents suffering from mental illness and drug addiction.

"Here at the Brookside Center, we have both of those capabilities [mental illness and drug-addiction treatment] under one roof -- so it's easier to treat people who are affected by both issues," center administrator Melinda Howard told Roberts. "Nationwide, we're moving towards a more integrated approach…. We're pretty unique here in Oregon."

According to Dr. Jenna Hiestand, medical director for the section of Brookside dedicated to mental-health patients, "A lot of facilities won't take a person who has both kinds of problems."

Roberts explained that people suffering from mental illness and dependency have a huge impact on the Sheriff's Office.

"Mental health is a big priority for us," Roberts said. "In our jail, 30 percent of our population has some sort of mental illness. We've implemented Crisis Intervention Team [CIT] training and made it available to agencies all over the county." CIT training helps equip deputies and police officers to better deal with the mentally ill.

During the tour, Howard and Hiestand showed Roberts the new facility's many features -- from its collapsible coat hooks and other custom-built fixtures (designed to foil suicide attempts) to its open, airy architecture and welcoming community spaces.

"This facility was originally planned for inpatient placement -- meaning that people could be held here on an involuntary basis -- so everything was built to a very high standard," said Howard. "We retained all those safety features."

Sheriff Roberts said that many of the elements looked familiar -- because similar ideas are being incorporated into the design of the county's new 800-bed jail, set to begin construction this October. He said there plans for the new jail to "incorporate one pod that will be dedicated specifically to people with mental illness."

Kaiser plans to open the Brookside Center on June 11. It will operate under its own license, separate from Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital.

Above: In one of its airy communal areas, Melinda Howard (left) and Dr. Jenna Hiestand explain to Clackamas County Sheriff
Craig Roberts how the new Brookside Center will operate, providing residential treatment to people suffering from mental illness and addiction. 

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