Bloglander

Daybreak Youth Services has moved its Spokane outpatient treatment facility to Spokane Valley, allowing it to expand its treatment capacity for teens.

It's the second expansion for Daybreak Youth Services just this year, as the nonprofit works to offer more services to kids in Washington with substance abuse and mental health disorders.

"Everything is getting bigger and better across the board," says Alayna Becker, Daybreak communications manager.

The organization's outpatient program previously operated from downtown Spokane, at 960 E. Third Ave., and served about 70 clients per month. The outpatient program moved to its new location in Spokane Valley, at 200 N. Mullan Rd., in April, and enables Daybreak to serve up to 100 clients per month. It also makes it easier to serve teens who go to school in Spokane Valley, Becker says, as Daybreak works closely with those schools.

Last week, Daybreak celebrated the opening of a new 58-bed inpatient treatment center for adolescent recovery in Vancouver, Washington. It has 43 residential treatment beds, three detox beds and 12 mental health evaluation and treatment beds for teens of both genders, ages 12 to 17. Daybreak also operates a 40-bed inpatient facility for girls only in Spokane for teens to recover from substance abuse and/or mental health issues.

Becker says the long-term strategy is to hopefully bring in more transitional housing to serve teens. For its inpatient programs, there's about a 50 percent recovery rate for kids. Many kids leave the facility and either go back into a home where substance abuse is present, or they are homeless or in foster care. That, she says, isn't conducive to maintaining a healthy recovery.

"As a long-term strategy," she says, "we hope to bring more transitional housing."