Navajo Nation expands behavioral health care with Phoenix recovery center
Navajo Nation spent $4.9 million on Phoenix recovery housing and opened a 92-bed center that has already served more than 100 relatives. Leaders are adding detox, psychiatry and aftercare.
The Navajo Nation is pairing a 92-bed Phoenix recovery center with $4.9 million in transitional housing, a move leaders say is meant to fill the gap between treatment and stable recovery for families across Navajo communities, including Apache County. The June 17 announcement framed the effort as one of the largest behavioral health and substance-use recovery investments in the Nation’s history, with money aimed not just at beds but at the next steps people need after discharge.
At the center of that expansion is the Yideeskąądi Hózhǫǫjí Center at 3008 N. 3rd Street in Phoenix, the first Navajo Nation-owned residential substance-use treatment facility located outside the Navajo Nation. Operated by Axiom Care with the Navajo Department of Health and the Navajo Division of Behavioral and Mental Health Services, the center has already served more than 100 Navajo relatives. Its admissions materials say it works with AHCCCS and other insurers, and that no Navajo Nation member will be turned away because of insurance status.
The Nation is also trying to solve the harder problem that often follows treatment: where to go next. In May, officials finalized the purchase of a two-story apartment complex at 825 N. 2nd Avenue in downtown Phoenix for transitional housing. The fully furnished building includes appliances, furniture, networking and security systems, and residents are meant to have shuttle access to the recovery center and nearby medical facilities. That approach reflects the administration’s push for a recovery system built around treatment, follow-up housing and culturally grounded healing rather than a short stay and an uncertain return home.
The Nation is also seeking $4 million in Arizona opioid settlement funding to expand detoxification, treatment capacity, recovery programs and aftercare support. Future plans for the Phoenix center include expanded detox services, psychiatric care, intensive outpatient treatment and additional recovery support programs. For Apache County families in Chinle, St. Johns and other rural communities, those services matter because behavioral-health needs often outstrip local options and many patients still have to travel far from home for care.
The wider public-health backdrop is stark. The Arizona Department of Health Services says synthetic opioids, primarily illicit fentanyl, combined with stimulants such as methamphetamine are driving an increasing number of overdose deaths in Arizona. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has also said alcohol treatment and recovery services are often limited on reservations, even at Indian Health Service clinics.
The Phoenix investment builds on work already underway in Apache County. The Chinle Recovery Center opened March 18 after the community lost the Talbot House facility in 2018, and the Day At A Time Club, which has served the Navajo Nation since 1978, received a $780,000 contract in 2023 to expand alcohol and substance-abuse counseling. Together, those efforts show a recovery system that is being rebuilt piece by piece, with the aim of keeping Navajo patients connected to care long after they leave residential treatment.
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