County to Break Ground on Crisis Stabilization Unit
Author: Frank Warren
Date: 8/24/2017 3:31 PM
The County of San Luis Obispo’s Behavioral Health Department will hold a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the first stages of building a Crisis Stabilization Unit on the Health Agency campus at 2180 Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo. A brief photo/press event will commence at 9:00 a.m., Friday August 25.
The County of San Luis Obispo’s Behavioral Health Department will hold a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the first stages of building a Crisis Stabilization Unit on the Health Agency campus at 2180 Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo. A brief photo/press event will commence at 9:00 a.m., Friday August 25, to inform the public about this important project.
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 a grant from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, utilizing funding from the Mental Health Services Act. The 4-bed CSU will provide a brief and immediate therapeutic response for community members in psychiatric crisis, often preventing inpatient hospitalization.
The purpose of the 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 County’s CSU will have an exponential impact on the targeted population of high utilizers of emergency services, homeless, students, and other high-risk individuals. High-risk individuals include those adults who are: affected by trauma, suicidal thoughts, struggling with grief or high levels of stress, or who require crisis stabilization due to symptoms of a severe mental illness.
The brief ceremony will take place at 9:00 a.m., Friday August 25th at the building site, which is located adjacent to the red-brick annex building behind the former hospital. Parking is available on Bishop Street across from the Health Agency campus at 2180 Johnson Avenue.
For more information, please contact Frank Warren (805) 788-2055; [email protected]
