MARYSVILLE – For people in north Puget Sound stricken with mental illness or struggling with opioid addiction, things are going to get better.

Gov. Jay Inslee joined state and local officials Thursday to celebrate the first new psychiatric hospital to open in Western Washington in 80 years. (watch video)

The 115-bed Smokey Point Behavioral Hospital at 3955 156th St. NE will treat the increasing and unmet need for specialized psychiatric care and substance abuse services, providing both inpatient care for up to nine days and outpatient services for all ages.

“Isn’t it a joy that we know that hundreds of Washingtonians are going to get better because of the (hospital),” Inslee said. “This facility fills an incredible need in the state, and plugs an enormous gap in this community.”

The governor signed a two-year $43 billion operating budget for the state in June that contained more than $317 million in funding for significant changes to integrate the state’s mental and physical health system, upgrades to the state’s psychiatric hospitals, additional nursing staff and more funds directed toward community-based treatment and solutions.

Washington state’s mental health care system ranks 47th in the U.S.

Dr. Richard Kresch, president and CEO of US HealthVest that operates the behavioral hospital, said the company is excited to bring much-needed services to the community.

“We’ve been working on this project for close to seven years,” Kresch said.

He said the Smokey Point hospital is unique because it will help alleviate a significant bed shortage in the state’s most underserved area.

“Residents have had to travel long distances for care, and that made it difficult for families to participate in treatment, and also just for patients to get there,” Kresch said. “This is a real community-based facility that will serve the region north of Seattle, with beds that are very much needed. Supply here in this area of Snohomish County and north is the lowest in the state, so this sort of fixes that.”

There are also outpatient services “so for patients we can follow up with care closer to home.”

The hospital provides behavioral health and addiction treatment services to children, adolescents, adults and seniors. Comprehensive services include free 24/7 assessments, inpatient and intensive outpatient care.

A full range of specialized programs such as a Women’s Program, a Co-Occurring Disorders Program and a Psychiatric Intensive Care Program will be offered along with integrated healing practices for Native Americans. The hospital is committed to serving all patients, regardless of ability to pay.

US HealthVest invested $22 million to develop the 70,000-square-foot hospital. The two-story hospital has open spaces with daylight and direct views of the Cascades, foothills and pastoral lands. Shared amenities include activity rooms, therapy spaces, a dining area spaced among hallways and other rooms painted with mood-lifting pastel colors and framed artwork.

Touring the facility, Vice President Larisa Klein also directed guests to indoor and outdoor recreational activity spaces, including a workout room with yoga mats and exercise balls, and an outdoor gardening and horticultural area to create a nurturing and safe environment.

Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring thanked US HealthVest for choosing Marysville.

“It’s truly an asset that this facility is offering much-needed behavioral health and addiction treatment services for youth and adults,” Nehring said.

He referenced the pervasive opioid and heroin epidemic in the county, accounting for nearly half of unintentional deaths, a high rate of major depression and bipolar disorders and suicide, the second-leading cause of death among ages 18-34.

“So much potential is lost, and so much help is needed,” Nehring said.

“Combating this epidemic is a tough mission that requires many sectors to work together – law enforcement, community groups, and social and health services,” Nehring said. “The opening of Smokey Point Behavioral Hospital gives this region a much-needed additional tool in the battle.”

Arlington Mayor Barb Tolbert said the hospital is precisely what the north county needed.

“We don’t have a lot of resources for mental health and drug addiction,” she said. “This isgoing to put another big piece of that puzzle together that’s going to help us.”

Tolbert said the hospital isn’t just a resource for people who need services today.

“It’s here for other people who aren’t out there on the street yet with mental illness problems that one day could be, or who have challenges in their family,” she said. With the full-service psychiatic hospital so close by, “We can get in and get them some resources before things reach the tipping point and beyond.”

Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith said hospital personnel have been fantastic to work with, and it offers tremendous opportunities to get help for people with acute care needs locally, instead of sending them outside the area for treatment.

Kresch said the hospital wants to work closely with police and law enforcement in making sure that people detained who are more suited for treatment don’t wind up in jail instead, which happens in places where treatment facilities are unavailable.

Inslee also touched on funding in his budget package.

“When people come out of these hospitals we want them to have a place to go, a residence that’s secure, a way to get back into their job and family, so we want to make sure that our treatment doesn’t stop at these doors,” he said.

Tulalip Tribes Chairwoman Marie Zackuse congratulated US HealthVest for “building a facility that is a needed like twenty years ago.”

The Tribes is contracting with the hospital. “We look forward to a strong and supportive relationship,” she said, and the healing that acute care and other services at the hospital will bring.

When speaker “Alfie” Alvarado-Ramos, director of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, asked US HealthVest leaders the question “what’s your veteran focus,” she was encouraged by the response.

They cited their program, Chicago Extra Mile Veterans Care, which provides acute behavioral health care services to military.

Alvarado-Ramos said about 100,000 veterans live in the region north of King County – about 17 percent of the state’s military population. She said VA hospitals don’t always have the capacity to provide veterans with behavioral health care. They wait in the same lines in an overcrowded system severely lacking in acute care beds.

Keith Binkley, president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Snohomish County chapter, said the new facility is a game changer.

“We’re fortunate and excited that we’re moving in the right direction filling the need” for services,” he said.

Binkley said the hospital is making space available for key NAMI programs and classes such as Family-to-Family that provides caregivers support in aiding their loved ones, and Ending the Silence program that works with high schools on teen suicide prevention efforts.