Local mental health facility reaches 15 years of service

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, November 15, 2023

PENDLETON — Pendleton Cottage celebrated 15 years of providing mental health services on Monday, Nov. 13.

Pendleton Cottage is a recovery-focused, state-operated secure residential treatment facility in Pendleton but serving people from across the state as they transition into everyday life.

At an invite-only event on the facility’s grounds, people gathered to celebrate the program that has helped around 75 people who struggle with mental illnesses to recover.

Jenny Peters, program director, has run the program since its inception. Although residents didn’t move in until January 2009, most employees started the day after Veterans Day in 2008.

Leading up to the event, Peters reflected on the past 15 years. In the beginning, she said, they took a prescriptive, medical approach to treatment. While therapy still is an important part of treatment today, the approach has expanded.

“Over the years we’ve really shifted to a recovery focus,” Peters said, “having individuals have a big part in what the treatment is and what they feel is necessary for them.”

The goal for residents of Pendleton Cottage is to leave the facility and reintegrate into society having the skills they need to take care of themselves, whether that means handling their mental illnesses or cooking their meals or interviewing for a job.

Because the facility is run by the state, all 42 staff members are state employees. Officials with the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon State Hospital supervise the program.

Since opening, the one major physical expansion of the facility is the Lane Activity Center, a building that opened in 2016, where residents can participate in group activities and events in addition to treatment away from the houses where they live and eat.

Otherwise, the biggest change has been the shift toward a recovery focus, Peters said. Residents can participate in vocational training while at Pendleton Cottage, giving them the knowledge and skills they need to obtain and maintain employment.

“It’s nice because we have people who really want to do well and that helps us be successful, the fact that our residents want to be well and achieve more,” Peters said. “It’s not the case of people just going through the motions.”

With this person-centered approach to mental illness recovery and its emphasis on people participating in their community, Pendleton Cottage is nearly always full. Only 16 people can reside in the facility at any given time, Peters said, and their average stay is three years, so the service is in high demand. The number of residents will expand only if a decision is made at the state level to do so.

Peters said that one aspect of the last 15 years that stands out to her is how welcoming the Pendleton community has been.

“Pendleton’s had very open arms toward us,” she said. “The community has really embraced us and had a positive attitude to staff, residents and different people.”

Facilities with a focus on mental health can sometimes carry a lot of stigma in a community, but Peters said she hasn’t felt that here.

At the celebration event, there were three areas for people to mingle in. One section displayed artwork from residents, another had materials from the different group lessons that residents participate in for people to browse, and the final celebration area was home to cake and games for attendees.

Throughout the facility grounds, pictures showed daily life in the program. Staff and residents received awards recognizing their work.

Attendees were a mix of local community members and leaders, current and former program residents, staff members, and even Dolly Matteucci, superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital.

“It was so heartwarming,” she said of the event on Monday. “It’s a wonderful community within Pendleton Cottage, the program, and Pendleton, the city, is such a welcoming environment. It’s so important in terms of recovery.”

Pendleton Cottage is an asset to Oregon State Hospital and to behavioral health in the state, Matteucci said. Residents in the hospital have something to aspire to, and they know there is a place they can continue to grow in their recovery.

The people who live in the facility have progressed in their mental health recovery and have demonstrated safe and responsible behavior at a higher level of care.

Even compared to other state-run treatment facilities, she said, it’s a less restrictive environment and puts a strong emphasis on “safe and sustained community reintegration.”

Reflecting on the 15 years of service provided by Pendleton Cottage and the event celebrating its work, Matteucci said, “There is that collateral beauty that other people recognize and experience when they see a peer be successful. I also think the staff that work there are there because they believe in the power of humanity and an individuals’ ability to progress and be successful.”