A mental health services provider in Southwest Washington abruptly closed Monday, leading to worries that Clark County’s hospitals and crisis centers could be overwhelmed with an influx of people seeking withdrawal medications to treat opioid use disorders.

Columbia River Mental Health Services provides counseling for adults and children, and mental health medication management for patients at four locations around Clark County.

Through an online statement, the nonprofit notified patients in Vancouver, Hazel Dell and Battle Ground, where it has clinics, about a “pause in services.” It said that treatment would be unavailable for adult and child outpatient care, psychiatry and case management, among other services.

Around 800 individuals in treatment for opioid addiction likely won’t be able to access methadone medications at other facilities, Columbia River Mental Health Services Chief Medical Officer Kevin Fischer wrote in an email to staff.

“Clark County’s hospitals, ER’s, crisis beds, primary care offices, and facilities that offer withdrawal management (detox) are at very high, imminent risk of being overwhelmed with the individuals withdrawing from their medications,” Fischer wrote.

The closure in Southwest Washington is complicated by the fact that Medicaid recipients cannot typically cross state lines to receive care, Fischer noted, even when similar mental health or substance use treatment programs are available in Portland.

The nonprofit has said it serves approximately 5,000 people per year for all services. Fischer’s email said the cause of the closure was “an evolving shortfall of monthly cash flow against clinic expenses, coupled to inability to access equity in the organization’s real estate holdings in the timeline necessary to meet current obligations.”

CRMHS leadership, including CEO Victor Jackson and board members, did not respond to requests for comment about the closure. The agency’s clinic in Vancouver was closed on Monday afternoon.

Debra Carnes, a spokesperson with PeaceHealth Hospitals in Southwest Washington, said the hospital system is discussing the implications of Columbia River’s closure but that “it’s too soon to really understand.”

It’s unclear how sweeping the closure will be or which services may resume.

The organization also operates the NorthStar treatment center in Vancouver, which opened in 2023 to provide treatment for opioid use disorder amid the region’s fentanyl crisis.

Now, the future of that facility has also been thrown into question.

Fischer warned staff that an abrupt closure “is a very real possibility.” As of Tuesday afternoon, the program was still operating, according to the CRMHS website.

The nonprofit has also been in the process of opening a mobile opioid treatment program in partnership with the City of Vancouver to provide behavioral health and addiction services for unsheltered people in the city.

City of Vancouver spokesperson Tim Becker said the city has been in contact with the nonprofit’s leadership, “but we are still learning about the situation and the impact on their clientele.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/25/columbia-river-mental-health-clinic-clark-county-washington-vancouver-hospitals-doctors/