SEDRO-WOOLLEY — A new facility off State Route 20 in Sedro-Woolley is bringing online dozens of inpatient beds for acute mental health treatment and substance use detox.
The Skagit Stabilization, Treatment, and Recovery (STAR) Center is operated by Pioneer Human Services and has 48 total voluntary beds, including 16 crisis stabilization beds, 16 acute detox beds and 16 co-occurring treatment beds.
The facility is scheduled to open in the coming weeks, Skagit County Commissioner Peter Browning said Friday, March 20. About 60 Pioneer employees, including nurses, will staff the building, said Anthony Wright, the chief executive officer of Seattle-based Pioneer Human Services.
The 48 beds of Skagit County’s new STAR Center were intentionally designed and built to be in an open, communal space. (Photo by Eli Voorhies)
Speaking before a crowd gathered at the center for a ribbon-cutting on Friday, Sedro-Woolley Mayor Julia Johnson said the reason the facility is needed is that the community has lost people they love to accidental overdoses. Johnson mentioned Patrick Janicki by name, the son of former Skagit County Commissioner Lisa Janicki. Patrick died of an accidental overdose in 2017.
‘It’s a loss because these are bright, brilliant, young people who are gone from us forever,” Johnson said. ”They should be the people who carry on to make sure that facilities like this are actually running and people who need it, get it.”
Janicki, who was in attendance Friday, was later presented with a Congressional Record Statement by U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen.
“Patrick’s story was the impetus for me, and that story persists in our community, but it’s not the only story out there and this facility isn’t the end of the path,” Janicki said. “The next part of this has to be, where do people go to live? What’s that recovery housing look like?”
Lisa Janick, former Skagit County Commissioner, accepts praise from speakers at the Skagit STAR Center open house. (Photo by Eli Voorhies)
Each of the three sections of 16 beds are open areas where staff and clients share spaces; an intentional choice along with ample open flow between spaces, natural light and outdoor areas that are a part of trauma-informed design, said Lori Epler, a project planner with Cannon Design, the architecture group behind the facility. The same Cannon Design team that was behind the UW Center for Behavioral Health and Learning also designed the Skagit STAR Center.
The new center in Sedro-Woolley is a project of North Star, the partnership between Skagit County, Burlington, Mount Vernon, Sedro-Woolley, Anacortes, first responders and various housing and health organizations.
North Star, which was established in 2022, received $17 million from the state legislature and over $5 million from the state’s commerce department for the new facility. The new center is intended for adults in need of long-term treatment for substance use and mental health challenges. Before taking over Skagit County’s health department, Monica Negrila led the initiative behind North Star.
Each of the four cities behind North Star contributed portions of their opioid settlement funds for the new facility, Skagit County Commissioner Joe Burns said.
Browning, who’s also on the board of Public Hospital District No. 1, which includes Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon, said emergency rooms should not be used for treating substance use and mental health challenges, which has been the case for years. Skagit officials and supporters of the new center hope the new facility will change that.
“Emergency rooms should not be our county’s treatment facilities. This is why the North Star is so important,” Rep. Larsen said.
Skagit County originally broke ground on the Sedro-Woolley project in August 2024 and modeled the new facility on the Spokane Regional Stabilization Center. The facility, which is just past PeaceHealth United General Medical Center, was originally supposed to open in late 2025, but flooding in December delayed the opening.
The new voluntary STAR Center was built next to an involuntary, 16-bed acute inpatient mental health care facility called the North Sound Evaluation and Treatment facility.
Pioneer Human Services already operates in Skagit and Whatcom counties, including at Skagit and Whatcom Detox, City Gate Apartments in Bellingham and a transition house in Mount Vernon.
Owen Racer is a Report for America corps member who covers health care and public health in Whatcom and Skagit counties. Reach him at owenracer@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 101. Learn more and donate at cascadiadaily.com/rfa.