Columbia River Mental Health Services announced in March 2025 it was suspending most operations due to financial difficulties. For some amount of time, about 5000 people with mental illness and addiction were left without medical and social services and without guidance as to where to get services.
PRESIDENT – Dimitry Makhanov, OneDigital
VICE PRESIDENT – Michelle Howell, retired CPA
TREASURER – Beth Oliver, Council for the Homeless
SECRETARY – Peter Munroe, community member
Douglas Chapman – The DBT Clinic, PC
Paul Harris – Washington State Legislator
John Horch – Clark County Sheriff’s Office
James “Jamie” Howsley – Jordan Ramis PC
Kyle Rahn – Peace Health
Matt Rose, DO – Rose Medical Groups, PC
Greg Saunders, MD – Legacy Salmon Creek HospitalVictor Jackson – Chief Executive Officer
Kelly Ferguson – Chief Operations Officer
Sarah Brown – Chief Policy and Compliance Officer
Columbia River Mental Health finds means to offer some services but cash flow problems that started last year remain, The Columbian, March 28, 2025
Financial issues made worse by federal funding freeze came to a head earlier this week leaving thousands of patients in the lurch
After announcing earlier this week it would suspend operations, Columbia River Mental Health Services has found a way to continue providing select behavioral health programs, including methadone distribution at its NorthStar Clinic — at least for now.
The nonprofit’s announcement Monday about the suspension of services left thousands who depend on it for counseling and psychiatric care with few answers. Initially, the organization said adult, child and family mental health counseling, as well as psychiatric medication management, would be impacted.
However, Columbia River Mental Health Services will continue offering five services to the community: NorthStar Clinic opioid treatment services, the Program of Assertive Community Treatment, mobile health team, Forensic Housing and Recovery Peer Services, and Trueblood housing support, Chief Operating Officer Kelly Ferguson said.
“We value our patients and employees and are still fighting to find funding. We realize this news was a shock to the community,” Ferguson said in an email Friday.
She said the nonprofit is working with the state Health Care Authority, the governor’s office, state and federal elected officials, and other organizations to find money to cover its services.
The nonprofit would have needed to acquire at least $3 million by today to reopen all services and pay staff, Ferguson said.
Since Monday, Columbia River Mental Health Services has been working with other local nonprofits to reassign its clients depending on their eligibility, level of care and individual needs, Ferguson said.
Remaining medical staff have been evaluating refill requests and getting medications to clients to cover any gaps in care. The best way for affected clients to receive medication refills is to make a request through their pharmacy, Ferguson said.
Ferguson said the NorthStar Clinic remains open and that earlier reports of its closure were wrong.
Chief Medical Officer Kevin Fischer had previously said in an email to his agency’s partners that “abrupt closure of the NorthStar opioid treatment program this week is a very real possibility, and I have a public health obligation to share the information now.”
Columbia River Mental Health Services has four locations, including its main offices at 6926 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., and its NorthStar Clinic at 7105 N.E. 40th St.
The NorthStar Clinic is open from 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. until noon Saturday. This schedule will remain in effect until further notice, Ferguson said.
NorthStar opened in August 2023. It serves about 850 people with opioid-use disorder, 800 of whom are on methadone and cannot access their medication anywhere but a federally licensed opioid treatment program.
Columbia River Mental Health Services will notify clients of its other programs as soon as there is a clear timeline for fully reopening, according to its website.
“If you feel you need therapy, psychiatric services or case management sooner, we are happy to assist you in coordinating care with other providers to ensure there is no gap in your treatment,” the nonprofit’s website states.
Financial woes
A series of events led the nonprofit, which serves 5,000 people each year, to this point, Ferguson said.
“Starting last year, it became clear to management that CRMHS was having cash-flow difficulties largely due to being a reimbursement-based payee system,” Ferguson said. “In an effort to mitigate carry-over losses from month-to-month, CRMHS began the process of obtaining a loan and line of credit.”
In the fall, the nonprofit’s management became aware of its deteriorating financial state, due to a culmination of billing inefficiencies, a larger number of insurance claim denials and the gap between billing to payment doubling in length of time, Ferguson said.
This led to the first round of layoffs, salary reductions and a closer look at operational expenses. Then, the Trump administration’s federal freezes cut the flow of funds for three to five days at the end of January. Although the federal funding freeze was not the direct cause of the financial crisis, the nonprofit was unable to cover expenses during that time period, Ferguson said.
Board members and executives from Columbia River Mental Health Services have been working to identify additional sources of bridge funding.
“To be clear, CRMHS management and its board of directors take full responsibility for the agency’s current financial position and do not lay blame on any outside parties,” Ferguson said. “We also take responsibility for not reaching out to our community partners and elected officials earlier. Staff and executives worked hard and made sacrifices to make things work for as long as they could — and continue to do so — but it was the totality of the circumstances that ultimately left CRMHS in this dire financial position, and we are deeply sorry we did not take more preventative measures.”
The state Employment Security Department issued a notice Monday that Columbia River Mental Health Services began rolling furloughs Nov. 4, affecting 112 workers. Employees learned about the financial crisis during meetings in the fall, Ferguson said.
Columbia River Mental Health Services recently started a mobile clinic out of a recreational vehicle that will go to homeless camps in Clark County. The agency also recently signed a contract to provide services at the city of Vancouver’s upcoming 150-bed homeless shelter.
Reimbursement rates often do not or barely cover the real costs of delivering services. There is also no way for providers to recover the gaps in rates when about 90 percent of Columbia River Mental Health Services clients use Medicaid or Medicare to pay for services, Ferguson said.
“Cuts to behavioral health services at the state or federal level can have life and death implications to the people needing care while the number of people accessing these resources increases year over year,” Ferguson said. “Thus, without increases in funding for behavioral health care services, especially related to Medicaid and Medicare, communities will likely continue to see the closure of nonprofit clinics, like CRMHS, whose margins for error and loss remain exceedingly slim.”
Columbia River Mental Health Services suspends operations, TCA Regional News, March 24 2025
Financial woes forced Columbia River Mental Health Services to suddenly suspend operations Monday. The move leaves thousands of people who rely on the Vancouver-based nonprofit for counseling and psychiatric treatment in the lurch.
The agency, Southwest Washington’s oldest behavioral health provider, serves 5,000 people each year, according to its website.
The services halted include adult, children and family mental health counseling, and psychiatric mental health medication management, according to an email Chief Medical Officer Kevin Fischer sent Monday to the agency’s partners.
“To put the matter simply, 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 individuals withdrawing from their medications – with impacts beginning now and potentially accelerating later this week,” Fischer said in the email.
Columbia River Mental Health Services has four locations, including its main offices at 6926 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., and its NorthStar Clinic at 7105 N.E. 40th St. NorthStar offers methadone and other medications to manage opioid withdrawal.
Fischer’s email said Columbia River Mental Health Services board planned to meet at 4 p.m. Monday “to review updated financial data and determine the operational viability of our NorthStar opioid treatment program.”
“Abrupt closure of the NorthStar opioid treatment program this week is a very real possibility and I have a public health obligation to share the information now,” Fischer said in the email.
The state Employment Securities Department issued a notice Monday that Columbia River Mental Health Services began rolling furloughs Nov. 4, affecting 112 workers.
Fischer’s email also said employees would be furloughed.
“The cause of this circumstance is 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,” Fischer said.
Uncertain future
Troy Stevens received a brief and vague voicemail from Columbia River Mental Health Services on Friday telling him to report to NorthStar on Monday. A line of about 100 people wrapped around the building Monday morning.
Stevens has been in recovery for about two decades and uses methadone to stay stable.
NorthStar opened in August 2023. It serves about 850 people with opioid-use disorder, 800 of whom are on methadone and cannot access their medication anywhere but a federally licensed opioid treatment program.
“It’s frightening,” Stevens said. “I count on this stuff every day to get to work and go through my life. To not have it is a big deal.”
Others in line said they found out about the agency’s potential closure over the weekend or when they arrived Monday morning. NorthStar Clinic staff told a reporter and photographer from The Columbian to leave the premises and curtailed interviews with those affected by the closure.
“(Methadone) stops the seeking behavior. It helps you focus on your day-to-day tasks. That’s what it’s done for me,” said Butch Gramer, who has been using Columbia River Mental Health Services for about four years. “I’m nervous.”
Clark County’s only other methadone clinic is Comprehensive Treatment Center in the Salmon Creek area north of Vancouver. In his email, Fischer said the clinic is staffed and resourced to treat a clinic population roughly one-third the size of NorthStar’s patient population.
“Although a few dozen clients will be able to access services in Cowlitz County – that resource is also significantly smaller in scale and will be unable to meet the sudden need of Clark County’s most vulnerable,” Fischer said.
Columbia River Mental Health Services recently started a mobile clinic out of a recreational vehicle that will go to homeless camps in Clark County. The agency also recently signed a contract with the city to provide services at the city of Vancouver’s upcoming 150-bed homeless shelter.
Community partnerships
Clark County’s Department of Community Services, which offers housing, mental health and behavioral health support programs to the community, has three contracts with Columbia River Mental Health Services.
One contract allocates $819,523 to the nonprofit’s Mobile Intensive Behavioral Health Housing Team, which has been effective since January 2023 and will continue until Dec. 31, Clark County Community Housing and Development Manager Michael Torres said.
Another contract for $84,000 – effective from January through December 2026 – provides funding for office space at the Clark County Youth House.
The third contract for $89,000 was awarded in 2019 to reconstruct Elahan Place, which the nonprofit uses to provide private alcohol and drug rehabilitation. That contract will be effective until June 30.
Torres said if Columbia River Mental Health Services were to shut down permanently, the county would immediately terminate its contracts with the nonprofit.
Ruby Lewis, founder of Vancouver nonprofit Please Don’t Die Black Men, said the closure of Columbia River Mental Health Services would be a travesty, as thousands of individuals – many of them low-income and underserved – would not have access to critical services.
Lewis, whose organization serves Black and low-income youth, said she is extremely worried about the implications the closure would have on that population.
“We cannot ignore this,” Lewis said. “When an institution like CRMHS shuts down without transparency, contingency plans or communication – it’s not just a bureaucratic failure. It is a public health emergency.”