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With nearly $20 million in the bank – and a little help from State Sen. Mike McGuire – the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Mad River Community Hospital are ready to launch the design phase of a 43-bed Behavioral Health Crisis Triage Center in Arcata. 

Aimed at expanding local access to mental health services, the state-of-the-art facility will include a sobering center, behavioral health and crisis stabilization services for people of all ages, regardless of insurance, with stays ranging from less than 24 hours to 90 days. The proposed plans include 12 crisis stabilization beds – six for adults and six for children and teens – 12 sobering cots, 10 crisis residential beds for dual-diagnosis of mental health and substance use disorders, and nine mental health crisis residential beds. 

At a press briefing this morning, McGuire underscored the importance of increasing critical resources for people in acute crisis, especially in rural communities.

“[W]e are finally making progress on one of the biggest challenges that this county and rural California faces … and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with the county, the Board of Supervisors and, of course, all of the hospital leadership who have led this all-hands-on-deck effort,” McGuire said. “Mental health has to have parity with physical health, and we’re doing it now in Humboldt. We’re putting our money where our mouth is and getting these facilities built.”

DHHS Director Connie Beck highlighted the services that will be offered at the sobering center, a short-term care facility where people who are intoxicated can safely recover and/or detox from alcohol or other drugs. Beck noted that sobering centers are relatively rare in California. As of November 2020, there were less than a dozen sobering centers in California – a quarter of the nation’s total – according to the California Health Care Foundation.

Connie Beck

“The sobering center will allow someone to come in, [stay] for up to 24 hours and really be assessed for what that need is,” Beck said. “Whether it’s addiction … or whether that’s going on to crisis or longer-term residential treatment, all of those services being in one location and being able to move through that process will be really important for them.”

“This is really going to be a game-changer for Humboldt,” she added.

Behavioral Health Director Emi Botzler-Rodgers added that the triage center will help the local health care providers “address stigma and discrimination in ways that haven’t always been addressed.”

“These partnerships … really demonstrate the community’s commitment to look at mental illness and substance use, how people are suffering and how we can offer dignified care,” Botzler-Rodgers said. “It’s really hopeful and inspiring for me.”

The project has received $19.8 million to date. Last year, the county was awarded $12.36 million in grant funding from the California Department of Health Care Services’ Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program. The county has kicked down approximately $2.5 million for the project. Another $5 million is coming from McGuire and private funding sources.

“I believe that we’re going to need to raise another five to six million to be able to close the final gap,” McGuire said. “It’s very common in a large project like this that you get the majority of the dollars in the bank, move forward onto the construction [phase], and that will also build momentum. We are firm in our belief that by the end of the 2025 calendar year, we’ll have the full [funding] allocation secured.”

Mad River Community Hospital donated the land for the triage center. While the exact location of the has yet to be determined, the facility will be built somewhere on the hospital’s 40-acre campus.

The Behavioral Health Crisis Triage Center is slated for completion by the end of 2026.

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