County Breaks Ground on Crisis Stabilization Unit
Author: Frank Warren
Date: 8/25/2017 12:39 PM
The County of San Luis Obispo’s Behavioral Health Department held a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday August 25th to mark the first stages of building a Crisis Stabilization Unit on the Health Agency campus at 2180 Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo.
The County of San Luis Obispo’s Behavioral Health Department held a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday August 25th to mark the first stages of building a Crisis Stabilization Unit on the Health Agency campus at 2180 Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo.
The "CSU" will be built behind the main Health Agency building (site of the old General Hospital), and will be open in the winter of 2018. The building of the CSU was made possible through the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act of 2013 (SB 82), which resulted in a State grant of $971,070 from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority. State and local funding for the project comes from the Mental Health Services Act.
The purpose of the 4-bed CSU is to provide immediate therapeutic response on a short-term basis (lasting less than 24 hours) to stabilize individuals experiencing mental health crises. Stabilization often prevents the need for psychiatric inpatient hospitalization by alleviating problems and symptoms which, if not treated, may threaten an individual’s safety or substantially increases the risk of one becoming gravely disabled. The CSU is scheduled to open in February, 2018.
Ceremony attendees, pictured above (l-r), included Creed Bruce (project manager,Public Works), Deanna Cantrell (Chief of Police, SLOPD), Daisy Ilano (Behavioral Health Dept. Medical Director), Anne Robin (Behavioral Health Dept. Administrator), Raven Lopez (Behavioral Health Dept. accountant/grant lead), David Riester (Behavioral Health Board), Patricia Ashbaugh (San Luis Obispo Defenders),Tim Olivas (Undersheriff), and Jeff Hamm (Health Agency Director). The ceremony took place at the building site, which is located adjacent to the red-brick annex building behind the former hospital.
For more information, please contact Frank Warren (805) 788-2055; [email protected]
