New Latino residential treatment facility in Madras
Published 3:00 am Tuesday, May 26, 2026
BestCare Treatment Services is building a new residential treatment facility for its program focused on providing support to Latino men.
The new 8,000-square-foot building at 316 N.W. Fourth St. will hold 16 beds for substance use disorder treatment that were designed specifically for the local Latino population.
Programa de Recuperación de Madras is unique in how it provides linguistic and culturally specific support and is the only program and facility of its kind in Oregon.
“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,” a press release said.
Construction began with the groundbreaking ceremony on May 20. 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.
“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 Latinos in Oregon has doubled.
“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.”
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Thompson said that language, culture, fear and shame should not be barriers to 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.”
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.”
Typically, treatment lasts 60 days. Patients receive many therapy resources and create a relapse prevention plan.
Currently, the Programa de Recuperación is operating out of 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. We’ve always wanted to move to a different location.”
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 hope is that construction will be completed by summer 2027.
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 June.