Previously: With an Increase in Anxiety and Depression Among Children and Teens, New Mental Health Crisis Center Will Open to Serve Our Local Youth

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Sorrel Leaf Healing Center has been given the green light to move forward with its plans to establish the first youth-focused residential mental health facility on the North Coast. 

The California Coastal Commission approved a permit application for the project during this morning’s meeting for the North Coast District. The picturesque 13.5-acre site, located at 124 Indianola Road in Eureka, will host a 12-bed crisis residential treatment facility in a renovated three-story farmhouse. The facility will house several therapy rooms, kitchen and dining facilities, as well as administration and operation spaces, according to the staff report. The site will also include a yoga pavilion, a greenhouse where patients will grow their own food and a barn that for small livestock therapy animals.

The approved permit application includes several special conditions to protect the surrounding environment and wildlife, including 3.34 acres of wetlands and an active bald eagle nest, according to the staff report. 

“We are very happy to have received the California Coastal Commission’s approval for our plans to develop our Eureka property into a beautiful, land-based healing environment in which the North Coast’s young people will receive compassionate, transformative healing,” Dr. Evan Buxbaum, the center’s executive director, wrote in an email to the Outpost.

The farm-based residential treatment facility will be the first of its kind on the North Coast. Currently, the closest options for inpatient treatment for children and adolescents between 7 and 18 years of age are in either Santa Rosa or Redding, and those centers are frequently at capacity. 

Sorrel Leaf will also provide crisis stabilization, continuing aftercare and mobile crisis response for its patients.

“Our Mobile Response Team will work anywhere in the community to de-escalate crises through timely and thorough mental health assessment and diagnosis, as well as the development of an appropriate safety and care plan in coordination with the child and their caregivers,” according to the organization’s website. “Each child will receive individualized psychiatric and therapeutic interventions with the goal of minimizing further trauma and keeping them safely in their homes whenever possible, with appropriate follow-up referrals and case management in place.”

With the Coastal Commission’s blessing secured, the project can be put out to bid for contractors. If all goes according to plan, the crisis residential treatment center will be ready to accept patients by the end of 2024.

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