In November this year, 80 mental-health beds are slated to open in Lompoc, which accomplishes a long sought-after goal for Santa Barbara County.
Private mental-health provider Crestwood Behavioral Health, which operates throughout the state, is entering into a lease with the Lompoc Valley Medical Center to take over Champion Healing Center on South C Street in Lompoc, which served as an addiction treatment facility from 2014 to 2017.
During its March 10 meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved entering into a memorandum of understanding with Crestwood Behavioral Health, which stipulates the county will contribute up to $1 million for the tenant improvements that are required to prepare the existing facility for its new purpose. In exchange for this contribution, the county will have access to 32 beds in the upcoming facility for mental health clients in need of long-term rehabilitative care.
According to a staff report from the March 10 Board of Supervisors meeting, this project will result in the county’s first mental health rehabilitation center. The report states that because no center currently exists locally, the county has 57 of its clients in other centers throughout the state.
“This has been a long journey, one that’s going to provide a resource that’s long overdue in this county and will really help the citizens of this county who, when at times of most need, they’re separated from their families and have to go for services outside of this county,” 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said during the meeting.
In addition to creating the county’s first mental health rehabilitation center, the new facility will also free up beds in the county’s psychiatric health facility (PHF), which has 16 beds usually reserved for patients needing higher levels of care.
“Anticipated public benefits include freeing up beds at the psychiatric health facility by moving individuals who are not in acute crisis to a lower level of care so that individuals who are experiencing an acute phase of crisis … are able to receive treatment at the PHF,” the staff report states.
Construction on the project is slated to begin this spring and wrap up in the fall. The center plans to begin accepting patients in November, according to the staff report.
This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2020.
