Whatever happened to the mental health hospital planned in Templeton? Here’s an update
When a child or adult in San Luis Obispo County is experiencing a mental health crisis that requires hospitalization, more often than not they are sent hundreds of miles away to receive care.
In an effort to bridge that gap in care, property owners and developers Harvey and Melanie Billig planned to build a psychiatric hospital in Templeton on a parcel of land across Las Tablas Road from Twin Cities Community Hospital.
Despite protests from community members, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approved plans to build the 91-bed psychiatric hospital in 2016.
The hospital would fill an important gap in the county health care system by providing psychiatric services to children, seniors and people with private insurance.
Six years later, however, construction has yet to break ground on the hospital that is so needed in the community.
Dr. Harvey Billig, a retired ophthalmologist who has owned the parcel since 1989 said he and his wife are still working behind the scenes to make the project happen. Melanie Billig served on the San Luis Obispo City Council in the 1980s and was mayor from 1981 to 1985.
“There’s a tremendous need,” Billig said. “The need has only gotten worse or bigger. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been working on this for so long.”
Wysong Construction in Atascadero was brought on as the contractor for the Templeton psychiatric hospital, according to a past Tribune report.
The Tribune reached out to Wysong Construction to learn more about the status of the project, but requests for an interview were not returned.
COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress on the hospital
Building a new hospital in California comes with a lot of bureaucratic considerations, Billig said.
Today, he said they are in the process of trying to get everything in place in order to secure financing for the hospital construction.
“We’re just working with several potential operators,” Billig said. “In order to get financing to go forward, we need to have everything in place. It’s a very extensive project — all the parts have to be there and available.”
In 2016, the Billigs told The Tribune that a North Carolina-based company, Vizion Health LLC, was selected to run the psychiatric hospital.
Now, six years later, Billig said that Vizion remains one of the hospital operators the owners are considering, but that the decision hasn’t been finalized.
“(Vizion) is one of the people we’re talking to, but they’re not the only one, I’ll tell you that,” Billig said.
The Tribune tried reaching out to Vizion Health to confirm its interest in the project, but the call was not returned.
Billig said many hospital operators have experienced ongoing challenges running their existing medical facilities due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“They had their problems with all the problems with the pandemic,” he said, pointing to nursing homes as an example of a type of medical institution that has struggled over the past two years.
“It’s a difficult situation, but fortunately things are getting better,” Billig said.
The COVID-19 pandemic also created supply chain issues for construction projects, which only makes things more challenging when trying to plan a project as big as a hospital, he said.
“We’re hoping to get it done and get it started as soon as possible,” Billig said.
Billig said he recognizes that the need for psychiatric beds in San Luis Obispo County has only continued to grow.
He said they are frequently in touch with local organizations like Transitions-Mental Health Association, where they are reminded of the need for this hospital.
“The need only gets more crucial,” he said. “If this doesn’t happen, things are going to only get worse.”
“I feel sorry for all the families,” he added. “Everybody is trying to make this thing happen sooner rather than later.”
Progress on the hospital project already was slow before the coronavirus pandemic added more disruption.
In 2019, Billig told The Tribune that the team was working on securing approvals from the California Office of Statewide Planning and Development.
The lot split approval was still being reviewed by San Luis Obispo County Department of Public Works in 2019.
But the application for the lot split wasn’t submitted until nearly three years after the project was approved by the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors in 2016.
Templeton mental health hospital proposal had a long road to approval
The Billig family has owned the parcel of land on Las Tablas Road since 1989. The couple planned to build multiple medical facilities on the property over the past three decades.
In the 1990s, they considered building a physical rehabilitation facility there, before switching gears to a 192-bed assisted living facility. The assisted living facility was approved by the county in 2007 but later abandoned due to problems with financing and demand, the Billigs told The Tribune at the time.
One issue with the project is that not everyone was thrilled with the idea of a psychiatric hospital opening at that location in Templeton.
In November 2015, the Templeton Area Advisory Group voted against the plan to build the facility in the community.
Templeton resident Murray Powell was one of the most outspoken critics of the proposed hospital.
Powell appealed the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission’s Jan. 14, 2016, decision approving the hospital build to the Board of Supervisors.
Opponents of the hospital felt that the facility was unnecessarily large and would allow people from outside the county to use its services, according to a past Tribune report.
Melanie Billig said in a past Tribune report that the hospital is intended to serve the mental health needs of local residents, although people outside the county could also use the services.
This is the same model SLO County itself relies on now, sending its residents to facilities in other counties.
Some Templeton residents felt the proposed hospital would just bring more mentally ill people into the community and that it would jeopardize public safety and put a strain on local resources, according to a past Tribune report.
Others felt this criticism was rooted in stigma toward mental illness.
“Nobody wants it in their neighborhood because there’s a lot of stigma about the mentally ill,” San Luis Obispo resident Joe Johnson, who facilitates a support group through the local chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, said in a past Tribune report. “Would the opponents rather have people, their neighbors, suffer from these illnesses and go untreated? I don’t think so.”
Psychiatric beds are in short supply throughout California
The push for a hospital here reflects the scarcity of psychiatric beds locally and statewide.
A 2019 study by the California Hospital Association said the absolute minimum ratio of inpatient psychiatric beds to general population would be 50 beds per 100,000 residents.
As of 2019, California had roughly 17.16 inpatient psychiatric beds per 100,000 residents, according to the California Hospital Association.
The association points to population growth in California, the decline of outpatient psychiatric services and cuts to inpatient psychiatric beds starting in 1995 as some of the factors behind the gap seen today.
Today, San Luis Obispo County has 16 inpatient hospital beds for adults experiencing severe mental illness.
The state-regulated, county-run Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF), commonly referred to as the “Puff,” treats patients experiencing a mental health crisis that are considered a danger to themselves or to others, or who are seriously disabled.
Once they are considered in crisis and placed under a 5150 hold by a medical professional or law enforcement officer, they are sent to the PHF for at least 72 hours of treatment, according to the PHF website.
Admission to PHF is mostly limited to Medi-Cal patients, the state’s public insurance.
Since patients sometimes come directly from the San Luis Obispo County Jail, the PHF no longer has beds reserved for children or adolescents in crisis.
Youth under 18 years of age who are in crisis cannot receive mental health or sobering services in SLO County and have to be sent to facilities elsewhere in the state.
“There’s a huge lack of inpatient services in the area (for children),” San Luis Obispo County Youth Triage Crisis Specialist Jason Hooson told The Tribune. “And when I say lack of, that means there’s none.”
If the child is considered in crisis, they are placed on an involuntary 5585 mental health hold and sent to the local emergency room while county health officers search for an available bed at an inpatient psychiatric facility somewhere in California, Hooson said.
Sometimes children as young as 10 or 11 years old are sent miles away from home to receive critical inpatient psychiatric services.
Transferring mentally ill children to a psychiatric hospital far away from home can be frightening and stressful for the patient and their family, according to families who have experienced this process.
If the Templeton psychiatric hospital were to be built, it would allow children and adults in San Luis Obispo County and in neighboring communities to receive intensive mental health treatment closer to home.
“I definitely think in terms of what we hear from our community and what we know as care providers, it would absolutely be in our better interest to send somebody to Templeton than to Ventura or anywhere out of county” San Luis Obispo County Behavior Health Division Manager Frank Warren said. “It’s better to be in-county.”
