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Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday praised San Mateo County officials for an ambitious project that reflects his two priorities: improving mental health treatment and combating the homelessness crisis.
“San Mateo (county) has taken a step forward,” Newsom said after touring the Cordilleras Health and Healing Campus, which will replace an Eisenhower-era concrete mental health treatment hospital. “Now is the time for other counties to do the same.”
Newsom selected the Mountain Ranges as the backdrop to announce that the state is accelerating the first round of funding, available through Proposition 1, to fuel California's transformation of the state's behavioral health system.
That transformation is unfolding between San Carlos and Redwood City, where the new Cordilleras campus is being built, which will aim to provide closed treatment areas for the most vulnerable patients in small, home-like settings, along with residential care for adults. focused on behavioral health rehabilitation and recovery.
?We have never been and never will be brick and mortar. It's about people, our clients, and serving them in a dignified and respectful manner. And this is what we're going to do in these buildings? County Executive Mike Callagy said during a news conference with Newsom.
The campus, key to the county's system of inpatient and outpatient treatment centers that address mental health needs and keep the most vulnerable residents off the streets, replaces a facility first opened as a tuberculosis hospital in The 1950s.
In 1978, the building was rededicated to mental health treatment through the efforts of local family members of people with mental illness, who were the founders of the organization that eventually became NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
When it opens later this year, the campus will include a total of 121 beds arranged in smaller housing units with windows that provide views of the landscape and outdoor areas that offer fresh air and sunlight.
The current buildings will be demolished to make way for open spaces.
Newsom also announced the launch of MentalHealth.CA.gov, a comprehensive website for people looking for mental health resources available to Californians, which will let you know how your own county government is using the tools and resources already available to them.
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