EDITORIAL: New psychiatric hospital was approved in SLO County 4 years ago. Will it ever be built?
TribuneNov 01, 2019
It was a hallelujah moment for mental health advocates on the
And then ... crickets.
After almost four years, the project still hasn't broken ground. Some doubt it ever will, though the couple who proposed the facility are optimistic.
In the meantime, the
It's largely been left to the health care industry to fill the gaps in our mental health system, especially for private psychiatric patients who don't qualify for government aid. For the mot part, hospitals are focusing on providing ever more advanced care to patients with cancer, stroke, heart disease and other physical ailments.
Patients with serious mental illness are typically cared for in hospital emergency departments until they can be transferred to a facility that offers in-patient psychiatric care. Sometimes that can take weeks, according to Dr.
The need for psychiatric beds for children and adolescents is especially acute. There are only 706 in all of
With no local beds available, they're sent to
"They go alone to facilities hundreds of miles away," said Ketelaar.
Bleak statistics like those are what helped convince county supervisors to approve a
The couple behind the project, former
As to what's causing the holdup, he pointed to hurdles, including the need for a permit from OSHPD -- the
"Here's the skinny," he said. "Public works is very, very slow. They're reinventing the wheel."
Yet the application for the lot split wasn't even submitted until March of this year -- three years after the project was approved by the
Since then, there have been some back-and-forths over technical aspects of the project, such as plans for street lights, utilities and drainage, but according to interim Public Works Director
"As you can imagine, it takes time for us to review, send a letter with requests, and then have the applicant respond," he wrote in an email.
Nor is it unusual for years to pass between a development's initial approval and completion.
But this isn't a shopping center, residential subdivision or industrial park -- it's a facility that really could mean the difference between life and death for some patients.
As much as we support the Billigs' project,
How many inpatient beds are needed?
The lack of psychiatric beds in SLO County stands in stark relief when compared to recommendations from the
With a population above 283,000 people, that means
Instead, it has only 16, and those beds -- located at the county-operated Psychiatric Health Facility -- serve
That would require extensive remodeling, however, and there's no firm date for when it could open.
Still, it's a relief that the
It's also encouraging that
In addition to the plan for an in-patient facility in
Yet some believe Dignity should do more.
Dr.
Officials at French say they need to serve the medical needs of a growing segment of the population: aging baby boomers who are putting a strain on medical resources.
French rejects the idea that it's not caring for mentally ill patients
"We're seeing behavioral health patients brought in by law enforcement at an alarming rate," said
Mental healthcare crisis stabilization
Not everyone in the medical community is convinced it's necessary to have 50 psychiatric beds per 100,000 population.
Intervening before there's a need for hospitalization can make a big difference.
That's the mission of the county's Crisis Stabilization Unit -- or CSU -- a facility where patients can stay for up to 23 hours, during which time they're evaluated, treated and connected with out-patient services in the community.
Since
Still, CSUs won't totally replace psychiatric hospitals.
Until there are more local facilities, some patients still will wind up waiting for beds to open in other counties.
That's unacceptable. Patients should not have to be shunted hundreds of miles away because it doesn't make business sense for hospitals to care for them near their home communities.
Communities throughout
State lawmakers must get a better handle on the extent of the problem, develop a plan of action and identify funding sources. That's not as pie-in-the-sky as it sounds. Remember,
Surely, some of that money could be allocated to mental health beds, especially in the 25 rural and semi-rural counties that have no beds at all. One or two regional facilities could help close that gap.
A regional model could also work on the
For example, if the
By approving the
Ideally, work on that project will start soon.
If not, the crisis will persist, and our
County leaders must explore every avenue to ensure that these vulnerable members of our community receive the care they need and deserve.
Their lives literally depend on it.
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