The County of Santa Barbara’s Department of Behavioral Wellness came up empty with its two applications for any of the $3.3 billion in state bond money approved two years ago by California voters to help get those with chronic mental health and addiction issues into treatment. The one application originating from Santa Barbara County that did strike pay dirt — in the first round of applications, at least — was a $25 million proposal from a private mental-healthcare provider, Signet Health Central Coast, that’s proposing to build a 96-bed acute care facility in North County.
This would be a locked facility — much like Ventura County’s Vista del Mar, which was shut down by the state last year after a violent patient it released went home and bludgeoned his mother to death — with 48 beds set aside for adults, 24 for people 60 years old or older, and another 24 for children and youth from both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Vista del Mar did accept children and teens, and its closure created a significant loss for families with kids experiencing serious mental-health challenges. (Ventura County got two projects approved for nearly $100 million, $35 million for a PHF and $60 million for a sub-acute mental-health rehab center.)
Behavioral Wellness submitted two applications for a little more than $200 million combined. The county sought $31million in funding for two unlocked, 16-bed crisis residential units in North County that specialize in treating “justice-involved” clients: Individuals whose mental health challenges helped get them sideways with the criminal justice system. In South County, Behavioral Wellness sought $178 million to rebuild and expand the county’s Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF) from its current 16 beds to 24. In addition, the project would include a permanent sobering center — but with two more beds than currently exist — plus a 10-bed crisis residential treatment facility.
With only 16 beds, the county’s PHF unit — a carryover from the days when Santa Barbara had a general hospital — is not only old and archaic in design but woefully too small. Those 16 beds are set aside for those deemed to pose a threat to either themselves or to others, and almost every grand jury for the past three decades has loudly bemoaned the paucity of such acute care beds in the county. The county intends to apply again when round two for funding proposals opens up. “We will continue to pursue projects to reduce wait lists in place,” stated Suzanne Grimmesey, spokesperson for the department.
