The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Agency’s headquarters at 2180 Johnson Ave., pictured here on June 16, 2026.
Joan Lynch
jlynch@thetribunenews.com
San Luis Obispo County youth experiencing behavioral health issues will soon be able to get round-the-clock treatment through the county’s psychiatric facility.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors heard a presentation from the Public Health Agency on the Department of Behavioral Health’s plan to contract for an Enhanced Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program, or E-STRTP, for the next two years.
That program will consist of four beds at the county’s Psychiatric Health Facility at 2178 Johnson Ave., operated by Crestwood Behavioral Health and paid in full by a $4.6 million Children’s Crisis Continuum Pilot Program grant from the state Department of Social Services that the county accepted in April 2025.
That money will fund the program’s operations from July 1 through June 30, 2028, with the first clients entering care by this fall, according to the meeting staff report.
County youth services division manager Jill Rietjens said the new in-patient program will fill a longstanding gap in mental health care for youth in the county for the first time.
“Currently, when a young person needs this level of care, they must go out of county, sometimes hours away from home,” Rietjens said. “This separation can be disorienting for kids and creates significant barriers for families and caregivers who may struggle to participate in treatment or even pick up their kid at discharge.”
The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Agency’s headquarters at 2180 Johnson Ave., pictured here on June 16, 2026. The county’s psychiatric health facility administered by Crestwood Behavioral Health will expand to include an Enhanced Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program for youth in the fall of 2026. Joan Lynch jlynch@thetribunenews.com New beds provide short-term intensive care
The new beds will cost around $4.6 million and are made possible by a Children’s Crisis Continuum Pilot Program grant from the state Department of Social Services, according to the staff report.
E-STRTP programs provide behavioral health services, care and supervision for program participants under a Medi-Cal contract, typically employing a higher staff-to-client ratio than conventional STRTP programs, which can lack the supervision and care element, according to the staff report.
In essence, the program is designed to serve youth who don’t meet the criteria for psychiatric hospitalization but have significant enough behavioral health and mental health needs that cannot be dealt with in a home setting.
The new program will prioritize serving foster youth ages 12 to 17 from San Luis Obispo County, then foster youth from Santa Barbara County. If a bed is not filled by a foster youth, the program manager can fill the bed with a Medi-Cal eligible youth from San Luis Obispo County, according to the staff report.
Youth will be able to stay in the program’s care for a maximum of 30 days before returning to home-based care, depending on their needs, though the anticipated length of stay is around 15 days or fewer, according to the staff report.
While in the program, youth and their families will develop coping strategies to address their symptoms, according to the staff report. Clinicians will coordinate with both higher and lower levels of care for children in the county as needed.
After completing an assessment, clients can expect short-term, specialized and intensive therapeutic care and supervision, counseling and therapy, case management, skill-building exercises, psychiatric care, visits with family, outdoor time, connection to education, and a transition plan when exiting care, according to the staff report.
Getting the program up and running is expected to cost around $325,000, with operating expenditures making up around $2.1 million in both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 fiscal years, according to the staff report.
Staff walk in adult residential hallway at the SLO County Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF) in a file photo from Sept. 2, 2015. David Middlecamp dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com Clients to receive care as soon as this fall
With renovations underway at the county Psychiatric Health Facility’s former crisis stabilization building, the new program should be up and running this fall, according to the staff report.
Before the facility opens its doors, staff will be trained, licensed and certified over the next few months, which is included in the initial start-up cost for the program, according to the staff report.
Following a brief deliberation, the board unanimously approved the program, with District 3 Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg — who lives in the neighborhoods near the facility — praising its introduction.
“This has been something that we’re just very proud of — the staff getting the funding to get this going for the children, so we don’t have to send them out,” Ortiz-Legg said.
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Joan Lynch is a housing reporter at the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Originally from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Joan studied journalism and telecommunications at Ball State University, graduating in 2022.