Santa Clara County Superintendent Otto Lee tours the county’s new 28-bed inpatient mental health facility with former service beneficiary Valerie Aboji on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023 in San Jose, Calif. The facility operated by Momentum for Health is a former detox facility next to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. (Carl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
San Jose — Guest rooms in this building may seem unremarkable with neatly appointed twin beds, tables and chairs, and nightstands decorated with vases of artificial orange and purple days. unknown. But for Santa Clara County Superintendent Joe Simimian, they are symbols of hope.
Scheduled to open this fall, the county’s newest residential mental health treatment center will have 28 beds in 11 double rooms and 6 single rooms to accommodate adults with severe mental illness. Located across from the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in West San Jose, the facility will serve people who are no longer in critical condition but still need help returning to their daily lives.
“Each of these rooms offers an opportunity and hope for a better life,” Simimian told an enthusiastic crowd at the facility’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday afternoon. “Each of these rooms promises hope for a fuller, richer, and worth living life.”
In addition to rooms, the $1.8 million refurbished facility (formerly a detox center operated by Horizon Services) includes two common rooms, a kitchen, and spaces for group and individual therapy. be. Patients can receive services for up to two years, along with psychiatric services, addiction treatment and other support, county officials said.
The facility will be operated by one of the county’s contractors, Momentum for Health, and the service is estimated to cost $2.8 million annually.
The expansion of Santa Clara County’s psychiatric bed inventory comes a year and a half after President Susan Ellenberg declared a community mental health and substance crisis, and the It came just a week after the release of a county-commissioned study that revealed the expansion. There is a shortage of psychiatric beds in the area.
Since Ellenberg’s declaration in January 2022, the county has expanded its contract to add 99 psychiatric beds. The board recently funded an additional 173 beds, including 28 on South Bascombe Avenue.
“We’re moving faster on the ground than we’ve been in years,” Ellenberg told Mercury News. “On the ground, we are also paying greater attention to the differences between mental health treatment and substance use disorder treatment, and the different facilities and responses that are needed.”
If the county wants to meet demand, it must continue to act quickly. Santa Clara County has a significant shortage of subacute psychiatric beds, with levels of care that often require patients to stay in hospital for months, according to a recently commissioned county study by the Rand Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank. It has become.
Researchers said the county needed 251 acute hospital beds, 90 emergency housing beds, and 372 sub-acute beds to meet the needs of the community. The study estimates that there are 304 acute care beds and 92 emergency housing beds for adults in the county. – Only 216 sub-acute beds, although more than required in these categories.
Randland policy researcher Jonathan Levin said the county needs a 3.6% increase in adult psychiatric beds over the next five years to meet its needs.
In an effort to help the county meet its goals, the Randlund report made several recommendations, including increasing the number of hospital beds in the county, known as the “hard-to-place population.”
“On the psychiatric side, it was specifically for people with dementia, those who were unable to walk, those who needed oxygen, and those who had no financial resources,” Professor Levin said. “And among substance use treatment facilities, only about 5% accepted patients with dementia. It was only about one-fifth, and the acceptance rate for non-ambulatory individuals without funding sources is also much lower.”
For Valerie Aboju, turning to county mental health services after a suicide attempt last July was the first time in her life that she felt safe, secure and important. was. After spending time in the psychiatric ward at Stanford Hospital, she was transferred to one of Momentum’s residential treatment programs.
“Help is out there and I am a living example of how you can come out of this darkness and into the light because of the resources available,” she said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers free 24-hour support, information and resources to help. Call or text Lifeline 988 or visit the 988lifeline.org website where you can chat.
