- Details
- By Brian Edwards
- Health Care
The Yurok Tribe has broken ground on a $37 million treatment center that anchors a broader expansion of tribally operated behavioral health services in rural Northern California.
The Wah-Sekw-Won Treatment Center, located near Weitchpec, will include a 53-bed, 26,000-square-foot inpatient and outpatient facility providing residential substance use disorder treatment, behavioral health counseling, primary care and outpatient services projected to serve about 1,300 people annually.
The tribe said it will be the first tribally operated inpatient wellness center in the region, serving Yurok citizens, other Native Americans and eligible residents of Humboldt County and surrounding communities.
Construction is expected to be completed in spring 2028. The project is supported by a $26 million award through California's Bond Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program.
“This facility will provide a broad range of supportive care services as part of an expanding, sovereign, community-driven behavioral health system,” Yurok Tribe Chairman Joseph L. James said in a statement.
The center is intended to reduce the need for tribal members and other residents to travel long distances for inpatient behavioral health treatment.
The project team includes architect of record PYATOK and Native design firm 7 Directions, along with landscape architect Wildling Design Studio, civil engineer Trinity Valley Consulting Engineers, structural engineer Element SE and MEP engineer Frontier.
The project culminates more than a decade of planning by the Yurok Tribe to expand access to tribally operated behavioral health services. It also forms the centerpiece of a broader behavioral health campus in Weitchpec that includes a $7.9 million youth center now under construction and a planned $12 million peer respite center.
Together, the three projects represent nearly $57 million in behavioral health investments and are expected to create dozens of jobs in healthcare, education, case management and administration.
