Resistance to mental health centers betrays CA families

from George B. Sanchez-TeloCalMatters

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Rosa Rivas was furious but not surprised when Monterey County supervisors recently voted to halt planning for a multimillion-dollar project for a mental health center in Salinas.

Rivas was angry at her family, who were struggling to support her 35-year-old daughter, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia 15 years ago. Rivas sympathizes with the many other families who will have to go without help or support.

“I feel so betrayed, so sick,” said Rivas, who works as the family’s attorney in Salinas. “Give me another solution; just saying no isn’t enough.”

The unopposed motion to cancel the Monterey County Department of Health’s proposed mental health rehabilitation center means California patients and families — not just Monterey County or nearby communities on California’s Central Coast — will continue to struggle amid a lack of local mental health support for serious diagnoses.

When the Rivas’ daughter needed hospitalization about four years ago, there were no beds available at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, where they live. Her daughter needed 24-hour support; going home was not an option. Hospital personnel located a facility far north of Salinas.

“I didn’t know where Santa Rosa was, but I said if it’s the only place, go,” Rivas recalled.

Santa Rosa is more than 150 miles from Salinas. Rivas could only visit her daughter every other day because of the distance. Rivas saw some patients in chains; they were inmates whose mental needs prevented them from remaining in a county jail.

No mental health space available

The lack of affordable mental health space in Monterey County affects patients in need of 24-hour care and those under conservatorship — people believe that “severely disabled” by the state and who are unable to provide their own food, shelter, clothing or medical care.

A total of nearly 100 patients from Monterey County are housed outside the county — some as far north as Santa Rosa, others more than 300 miles south in Long Beach — in state hospitals, locked intensive care programs or in boarding and nursing facilities, the county health department said in a presentation.

RAND researchers indicated the need for more housing programs in parts of California in a 2022 Report: “The the housing shortage in the community is particularly severe in regions such as the Inland Empire, the Southern San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast.”

RAND experts and Melanie Rhodes, director of behavioral health for the county health department, said Monterey County is experiencing a phenomenon that has swept California and the nation, beginning with the demolition of state mental health facilities decades ago.

“This shift toward community-based services—while well-intentioned—has resulted in a lack of infrastructure to serve the needs of individuals who would otherwise benefit from stable and supervised housing, particularly those with serious mental illness,” the RAND report said.

There already in 1955 there were 337 psychiatric beds per 100,000 people; in 2016, there were 12 beds, RAND reported.

Gavin Newsom tried to make mental health support a cornerstone of his legacy as governor, but progress is slow. And as the RAND report noted, even among experts, “there is no consensus on best practices for determining the need for psychiatric beds.”

Coping with land constraints

The Monterey County Mental Health Rehabilitation Center would alleviate the lack of facilities for conservatorships in the region. Construction on the first phase of the project — three residence halls and an auxiliary building — would begin in 2027 and be completed by the summer of 2029, according to a introducing the community. The health department is expected to serve patients from the county, nearby areas along the central coast and from elsewhere in the state.

The department was restricted from using county-owned land or space, so it initially proposed using an empty wing of the old county jail. A previous sheriff agreed. But current Sheriff Tina M. Nieto stopped the proposal in 2024, saying the wing was needed for vocational programs and a laundromat.

Next up was some undeveloped land in Salinas’ Creekbridge neighborhood, conveniently close to Natividad Medical Center and close to the city’s soccer complex. The proposed campus would have included six 16-bed dormitories with rooms for doctor visits, meetings, exercise and shared living space. The project would also have built an auxiliary building with an industrial kitchen, maintenance shop, administrative offices and meeting rooms.

The move from renovation to brand new construction saw the cost of the project nearly quadruple, from $45 million to $172 million.

Monterey County Manager Luis Alejo said in October board meeting he was concerned that “the numbers had skyrocketed” and questioned the initial outreach of the community. He suggested ways to better engage county residents and added that he doesn’t question the need for the center.

From the beginning, neighbors of the site opposed the proposal. During a introducing the community in November, a majority of speakers said no to the rehab center, which raised concerns about safety and proximity to schools and the soccer complex.

One speaker accused the county of a “bait and switch,” saying real estate agents told prospective homebuyers the land would remain undeveloped.

The public remarks also revealed a lack of understanding of mental health and behavioral rehabilitation. One resident asked how the patients would be released, would the patients simply leave the facility? Then the speaker declared, “No one will be healed there.”

Another resident said: “You want me to put a mini mental institution here.”

“They are not criminals”

One neighbor asked: “How are you going to track them? Are you going to put a tracker on their ankles?”

Rivas attended this meeting. “I stood up and said, ‘They’re not criminals,’ that made me outraged. To hear residents talk like that about mental health patients.”

Supervisors pointed to this expense and complaints from local residents led them suspension decision the project.

Rivas believes more community engagement and public education is needed. She recalled successful efforts to build community support for the Alisal Integrated Health Center, a mental health clinic that specifically serves teenagers and young adults.

And if the county is limited by property ownership, officials should look elsewhere, Rivas said.

“Find a property somewhere,” Rivas insists. “I don’t care if it’s in Soledad or Gonzalez. As long as we have a facility like that somewhere instead of having to go to Santa Rosa.”

Also, Santa Rosa is only an option for local patients and families who are savvy enough to navigate hospital staff, insurance and government red tape and can afford the gas and time to visit.

Rivas knows some who don’t have access to that help. She has a nephew who, like her daughter, is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He has been homeless for 35 years.

When last seen, he was living out of a car in Watsonville, a farming town north of Salinas in Santa Cruz County.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.