Ribbon cutting at 650 S. Bascom Avenue Adult Treatment Facility
County’s new Adult Residential Treatment Center is next step in bolstering mental health services
Facility near Santa Clara Valley Medical Center campus will welcome residents starting this fall; officials celebrate with ribbon-cutting ceremony
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. – A former detox facility adjacent to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center campus has been transformed into a residential treatment center for people with serious mental illnesses, the latest step in the County of Santa Clara’s efforts to increase the level of care offered for those with behavioral health needs.
The County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors, Behavioral Health Services Department and operating partner Momentum for Health are celebrating the completion of the new center with a ribbon-cutting and open house on August 8.
“Twenty months ago, we made a call to action to treat and alleviate the ongoing mental health and substance use crisis in the county,” said Supervisor and Board President Susan Ellenberg, who co-authored the January 2022 declaration of a mental health crisis with Supervisor Otto Lee. “Since then, we have greatly increased funding to add treatment beds for mental health and detox services, launched the comprehensive 988 hotline with mobile response teams, broken ground on a new adult and adolescent psychiatric hospital, and now we're opening a place to help steer people back to independent living. This is a lot of progress and still just the beginning.”
The 28-bed Adult Residential Treatment (ART) program will serve people who have significant mental health needs but are not in crisis – people who are stepping down from more acute settings and transitioning back to independent living. The facility will be staffed 24/7 by Momentum and welcome the first clients this fall.
Supervisor Otto Lee said he was very pleased that the project was finished and ready to open its doors to community members in need of a step-down residential mental health care.
“When I got involved in this project at the end of last year, there were still a number of hurdles in the way of opening day,” Lee said. “But I knew that this type of facility was needed as fast as possible, and by working closely with the County’s Health and Hospital System, we were able to expedite the process and bring this vital project to completion.”