Hoping to find direction and stability, Chris McFarland joined the U.S. Army in 1986 as a homeless 17-year-old high school dropout. After leaving the military, he spent more than a decade cycling through homelessness, substance use and incarceration, serving time in prison from 1997 to 2000.
Today, McFarland is a certified alcohol and drug counselor and qualified mental health professional with the Benton County Health Department’s Behavioral Health Division, working on the Assertive Community Treatment team to help clients facing many of the same challenges he once experienced.
“I’ve lived the chaos that many of our clients are living,” McFarland said through a news release issued by Benton County. “I know what it’s like to be stigmatized, discarded and forgotten.”
The ACT team provides intensive, community-based behavioral health and substance use disorder services to individuals with serious mental illness, many of whom are experiencing homelessness and repeated contact with crisis and emergency systems.
McFarland works with clients in shelters, on the street, in hospitals and while navigating court and crisis systems. The model emphasizes relationship-based care, harm reduction and long-term engagement.
During his military service, McFarland served as a light infantry soldier with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, completing training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and stationed at Fort Drum, New York.
McFarland initially pursued a degree in psychology before shifting to public health. An internship at a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility for adolescents changed his direction toward counseling work.
Meghan Carlson, a qualified mental health professional with the ACT team, said McFarland’s openness about his journey has had a lasting impact not only on clients, but on the team itself.
“Chris’s willingness to share his lived experience with us as clinicians has really changed how many of us approach client care,” Carlson said. “He has helped reshape how our ACT team functions, and in my 12 years working with this team, I can honestly say it’s been for the better.”
County Administrator Rachel McEneny said she observed McFarland working with clients in settings including the correctional facility, city parks, the hospital and the Corvallis Daytime Drop-In Center.
“The experience underscored the difficulty and complexity of the roles Chris has to juggle,” McEneny said. “It requires unique skills, compassion and understanding.”