SLO County to get new in-patient psychiatric facility — with its first youth beds
San Luis Obispo County is creating a major new mental health treatment facility that will provide care for local children and adults with severe behavioral health issues.
The Pathways Home, also called the SLO County Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program, will operate as a 26-bed facility at 416 Spring St. in Paso Robles, providing inpatient mental health treatment and crisis treatment services.
The complex will contain the county’s first beds for youth who require residential psychiatric care.
“We have numerous stories of kids that really needed help, that were stuck in emergency departments for way too long, or were sent way too far away, and this is going to be an ability for us to keep people local,” SLO County health agency director Nick Drews told The Tribune.
The county Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted a $21.6 million state grant to develop the new behavioral health facility in Paso Robles during Tuesday’s meeting.
Construction is expected to be complete in 2028 or 2029, with a hard deadline to finish the project by June 2030, according to a presentation from the county’s Behavioral Health Department.
“This is a really big deal for San Luis Obispo County and also for North County,” Supervisor John Peschong said during the meeting.
What care will be offered at new mental health treatment facility?
The Paso Robles facility will close a substantial gap in the county’s behavioral health services by housing the first youth crisis residential treatment beds in all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, according to the SLO County Behavioral Health Department.
Currently, the county often must transport individuals up to six hours away — often to Ventura or Los Angeles counties — to receive in-patient psychiatric care, the county’s behavioral health director Dr. Star Graber said in a Tuesday news release.
From July 2024 to June 2025, county residents aged 20 and younger with Medi-Cal were admitted 173 times to out-of-county psychiatric hospital beds, which added up to 1,330 bed days in total, the release said.
“Imagine sending a loved one, a child or a grandchild away at a time when they need their family the most,” Graber said. “This not only creates immense stress on clients and their families but creates a disjointed continuum of care when they return home.”
The first floor of the three-story building will contain a locked 16-bed psychiatric health facility with 12 beds for adults and four beds for youth. These patients, who tend to pose a threat to themselves or others, are typically placed on 72-hour holds for psychiatric evaluation and treatment, though some can have extended stays of 14-days or more, according to Drews.
The county has one other in-patient, 16-bed psychiatric health facility in San Luis Obispo, but it’s usually at capacity, Drews said. And the need will only grow since Senate Bill 43 was expanded, he said, because it allows a patient to be placed on a psychiatric hold for “grave disability due to a severe substance use disorder,” according to the release.
The facility’s planned second floor will hold an unlocked crisis residential treatment program with eight beds for adults and two beds for children, with space to add two more youth beds if financially sustainable, according to the presentation.
Here, patients can stay for extended periods of around two to three weeks to receive treatment and counseling and be connected to services.
“What we’re able to do is provide a place where essentially the medicine can bake, and you can stay for a little while, and you can start to figure out what you need next,” Drews said.
“For a lot of individuals, this is a process. This is a huge experience in their life, and it takes time to make it work. So having that extra time at a crisis residential treatment facility (is) wonderful,” and will help reduce recidivism, he said.
The new facility is expected to reduce emergency department visits and hospitalizations from individuals suffering from severe mental health issues, according to the presentation. These oftentimes cyclical visits will also relieve the toll placed on first responders.
The facility will accept Medi-Cal and uninsured patients, with all operational costs expected to be covered by Medi-Cal, Drews said.
Paso Robles to get new mental health treatment building
The property at 416 Spring St. in Paso Robles will be acquired by March 31, the staff report said, with renovations expected to be complete by 2028 or 2029.
The current building owner, Community Health Centers of the Central Coast Inc., has already agreed to sell the property for $6.8 million to make way for the new behavioral health facility, according to the report.
The 0.89-acre property used to be a health care facility and contains a 21,039-square-foot medical office building and parking, the report said.
According to Drews, the renovations necessary to get the facility up and running include roof and HVAC repairs, as well as building walls to separate youth and adults sections.
The Paso Robles property is “absolutely the right place,” for the new facility, Drews told The Tribune, adding that the building is already adjacent to existing county behavioral health, public health and social services offices.
Locals in the area will notice very little difference once the facility opens, he said. Patients will be transported to and from the facility, and no passersby will be able to see into the building.
New SLO County behavioral health facility funded through Proposition 1
SLO County conditionally received $21.6 million to buy and renovate the Paso Robles property through Proposition 1 funds, according to the staff report.
California voters passed Prop. 1 in March 2024, and the two-bill package is comprised of the Behavioral Health Services Act and the Behavioral Health Bond, according to the California Department of Health Care Services.
The act reformed how the state funds behavioral health care by prioritizing services for people with “the most significant mental health needs.” It created new treatment options for those with substance use disorders, added more housing interventions and expanded the behavioral health workforce.
The other piece of Prop. 1 — the Behavioral Health Bond — authorized $6.4 billion in bonds to fund behavioral health treatment beds, supportive housing, community sites and housing for veterans with behavioral health needs, the state department said.
California handed out $3.4 billion in Proposition 1 bonds to fund 124 projects — including the Paso Robles project — in May 2025.
During the Tuesday board meeting, supervisors approved the Prop. 1 grant and state agreement, and the acquisition for the Paso Robles property — cementing the final steps necessary to proceed with the property purchase and renovation.
“This expansion allows us to respond more promptly to mental health crises and promote health equity across San Luis Obispo County ensuring that North County community members and others can access critical services in our county,” Graber said.
