Quality Support Services
Access to Mental Health & Substance Use Disorder Services
The Behavioral Health Department operates a toll-free, 24-hour, 7-day-a-week, Central Access line to help SLO residents:
- Get mental health and substance use disorder services, including assessment
- Get mental health and substance use disorder crisis or urgent services
- Use the problem resolution and fair hearing processes
Please contact our access line at 1 (800) 838-1381 for information or to schedule an appointment. All services are available in Spanish.
During regular business hours, Central Access staff are available to schedule first appointments for callers.
Services are available in English, Spanish, and by interpreter in other languages spoken in the community.
Behavioral Health Managed Care
Managed Care performs many authorization and access functions, including:
- Authorization of out-of-county inpatient psychiatric hospitalization
- Maintenance of a panel of Network Providers -- licensed therapists in the community who are carefully credentialed to ensure quality and network capacity
- Initial authorization of Residential Substance Use Disorder services
- Authorization of mental health services for youth in out-of-county placements
Network Provider Resources
Network Providers are licensed providers with private practices in the community who contract with Behavioral Health to serve Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
Patients' Rights Advocate
The Patients' Rights Advocate helps Medi-Cal beneficiaries and other consumers understand their rights and access problem solving processes. Duties include:
- Providing written informational materials
- Advocating for consumers
- Investigating complaints
- Monitoring programs to be sure that patients' rights are protected
- Training providers and consumers about rights
- Communicating with the State Patients' Rights Program
Quality Support Team
The Quality Support Team (QST) performs a variety of tasks designed to measure and improve the quality of services provided by Behavioral Health. We monitor access and outcome information and work in collaboration with the state Department of Health Care Services to ensure that SLO residents obtain needed mental health and substance use disorder treatment.
Health Agency Contractor and Network Provider Support Page
This is a resource page for contractors and network providers of the County of San Luis Obispo Health Agency. The contents of this page will help support compliance with HIPAA and other contractual and legal obligations. For questions about how to use this page, please contact the Compliance Officer at (805) 781-4788.
