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Clackamas County opens Lake Road Health Center, highlights behavioral health services and transit access
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Summary
County leaders and health staff marked the Lake Road Health Center grand opening, saying the clinic expands primary, dental and behavioral health services; officials said the facility is funded from clinic operational revenue and noted a $5 million boost for a separate recovery campus project.
Clackamas County officials and health staff on Thursday celebrated the grand opening of the Lake Road Health Center, a new clinic the county says expands access to primary, dental and behavioral health care.
"I'm Gary Schmidt, county administrator for Clackamas County," Schmidt said at the event and told attendees the center joins a network that serves more than 17,000 clients each year across five health centers. He said the Lake Road facility "is entirely funded by center operational revenue. No county general funds involved."
The ceremony included remarks from Jackie Arne, president of the Community Health Council of Clackamas County, who thanked county leaders and partners and said transit changes were made to improve access to the clinic: "Gratitude that changes in the bus lines were made to provide transportation to our clients here." Arne framed the center as a place for trauma-informed care and community transformation.
Egan Danahy, behavioral health program manager for the county health centers, outlined the services that will be offered and credited staff and community partners for the project. "There are over a 100 behavioral health clinicians that work in this space," Danahy said, and he named CareOregon, HealthShare and TriMet as partners that helped make the site accessible to clients.
Ben West, a county commissioner, placed the new clinic within a broader, recovery-oriented system of care the board has pursued and praised work on related projects. West said Representative April Dobson secured "an additional $5,000,000" for a planned multi-acre recovery campus that the county expects to break ground on in coming months, and he pointed to recent stabilization center and veterans village projects as part of the same strategy.
The ribbon cutting concluded the speaking portion of the program. Schmidt invited attendees to a tour of the new facility and said refreshments were available after the ceremony.
The county provided the numbers and program descriptions at the event; specific operational details such as staffing rosters, annual budgets for the new site, and a completion timeline for the multi-acre recovery campus were not provided during the remarks.
