BestCare Treatment Services is building a new Latino residential treatment facility for its program focused on providing support to Latino men, the only of its kind in Oregon.
The new 8,000-square-foot building at 316 N.W. Fourth St. will hold 16 beds for substance use disorder treatment designed specifically for the local Latino population. The space will include an outdoor recreation area, including walking trails. Programa de Recuperación de Madras is unique in how it provides linguistic and culturally specific support.
“The environment at the new facility will be intentionally designed to reflect Latino culture — an approach that has been central to the success of BestCare’s existing program,” the press release said.
Construction began with the groundbreaking ceremony on May 20, and both local and state leaders were anticipated to attend. The project is expected to cost between $6.5 million and $8 million, with $3.4 million in public funding already secured.
“This project represents far more than a new building — it’s an investment in a program that has already widened the access to care for Latino men,” said Salvador Amezola, BestCare’s Programa de Recuperación program director in the press release.
BestCare’s current CEO, Rick Treleaven, said that focusing on people’s dignity is important to BestCare’s work.
“In behavioral health, what that dignity means is that we provide compassionate care, that all people should have access to compassionate care no matter what,” Treleaven said.
Treatment will continue to be delivered entirely in Spanish and rooted in cultural connection, family involvement and a sense of belonging — elements that have proven critical in supporting long-term recovery.
“By helping them reconnect with their heritage and recover their Latino identity, we are helping to provide a solid foundation from which they can begin to heal,” Amezola said.
Treleaven said that since the program began more than 20 years ago, the number of Latino people in Oregon has doubled, which highlights the need for this facility.
“The need is immense,” said Melissa Thompson, the Chief Behavioral Health Officer and incoming CEO at BestCare Treatment Services. “There are lots of folks that don’t engage in treatment because of a language barrier or because of a cultural barrier.”
Catalina Sánchez Frank, the executive director for the Madras Latino Community Association, presented BestCare staff with a commemorative plaque.
“This is a sincere thank you for putting our community first,” she said.
Ledell also had something to say directly to the BestCare employees.
“We want to send a clear message to the workers who made this facility possible and those who will breathe life into it once construction is complete,” Ledell said. “This administration has your backs.”
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Thompson said that language, culture, fear and shame should not become barriers to getting treatment.
“We turn over soil as a sign that something new is taking root. But what we are planting here is much more meaningful than a building,” Thompson said. “We are planting trust and opportunity and a future where more people can access care that truly sees them, hears them and understands them. Substance use disorder affects every kind of person, ever family, every neighborhood and every culture. It does not discriminate.”
Thompson said the work done through this program is “ongoing.”
“But today reminds us that progress happens one step at a time,” Thompson said.
KC Ledell, the senior behavioral health advisor for the office of Gov. Tina Kotek, said that attending the event made him feel a “profound sense of potential.”
“We know that culturally responsive treatment is the most impactful treatment,” Ledell said, “and that the impact of a facility like this that is focused on serving Latino communities will be immense.”
Treleaven said the goal of BestCare has been to “provide the highest quality of services.”
“But the facility has always been very limited,” Treleaven said. “This allows us to take a very high-quality program and move it into a high-quality facility.”
Typically, this treatment lasts 60 days, where patients receive many therapy resources and create a relapse prevention plan.
Currently, the Programa de Recuperación is in a 13-bed facility east of downtown Madras and focuses on male-only inpatient work.
“The location that we are currently at was not ideal,” Thompson said. “It was sort of a last-minute thing that came together. So, we’ve always wanted to move to a different location.”
Treleaven said the state’s Request for Proposals had a “poison pill,” which meant BestCare only had three months to create the program when it began in 2002.
“The only facility available was the one we picked, which was frankly too small and in a poor location,” Treleaven said.
Amezola said the program had been running on “dreams and miracles” up until now.
Since 2002, the program has managed with the space they had, but once state funding came through for the change, BestCare took the opportunity.
“We kind of finally bit the bullet, recognized the need was greater and had the opportunity and took it,” Thompson said.
The environment at the new facility will be intentionally designed to reflect Latino culture — an approach that has been central to the success of BestCare’s existing program.
“It is huge,” Thompson said, “and it feels wonderful to be spearheading the movement.”
The hope is that construction, which will be on a Spanish-inspired building, will be completed during the summer of 2027. The current facility for the program will be kept, but its future use has not yet been decided by BestCare. Amezola said the Spanish facade is important because it reminds those who have immigrated from outside the U.S. of their country of origin.
“They miss home,” Amezola said. “… I am very emotional because this place is going to be serving my community, and we have long waited for something like this, and I’m just so excited.”
BestCare is also building single dwellings next to the new Latino men’s facility, which will provide housing and support for people with severe and persistent mental illness. That construction is expected to finish in the next month.