Deschutes County Downtown Clinic – Harriman Health Care

If you like outdoor recreation and craft breweries, Bend, Oregon is a great place to be. You can do some stargazing in the Oregon Outback Dark Sky Sanctuary, raft or kayak on the Deschutes River or hike dozens of trails. Bend is also where you’ll find the Deschutes County Downtown Clinic, which provides programs for those with serious mental illness and addiction disorders.

The clinic accepts the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) as well as private insurance plans. They have a fee scale for those without insurance coverage.

Community Support Services for Co-Occurring Disorders

The Downtown Clinic offers a Community Support Services (CSS) program for those with serious and persistent mental illness, including those with co occurring substance use disorders.

Services include individual and group therapy, outreach, skills training, medication management, case management, substance use treatment and care coordination. By integrating all of these services through one team, clients can get effective, evidence based care for their symptoms.

The case managers help clients find safe and stable housing, employment training and other community resources.

The Downtown Clinic is also home to Harriman Health Care, which provides integrated medical care to clients so that their physical health is addressed alongside their mental and emotional health.

Harm Reduction Services in Bend, Oregon

Along with treatment, the Downtown Clinic has a harm reduction program. I like that this program gives community members access to outreach services, prevention, and harm reduction supplies.

For example, you can exchange syringes, get safer smoking supplies, antibiotic ointment, alcohol wipes and more. They also have HIV, syphilis and Hep C testing free of charge, education, and free vaccine clinics.

Another service that stood out to me is their overdose prevention training. They offer it along with naloxone (Narcan), which is also free of charge.