Years ago, when I was on the Palo Alto school board, I’d ask teachers about the most challenging aspect of their job. I was struck by how many shared with me it wasn’t the teaching that was difficult; it was all the extra roles they felt obliged to take on: nurse, therapist, social worker and more.
The problem is teachers are not a child’s nurse or counselor. And they’re certainly not mental health professionals. We need to acknowledge that, as much as we want our schools to help keep our kids mentally healthy.
As chair of our county’s Health and Hospital Committee, I’m mindful of just how vital county programs and services can be for young people’s well-being. I hope families in the communities I represent in District 5 take advantage of the programs available to them.
In Palo Alto, allcove is an integrated physical and mental health care resource for young people. Alarmed by the mental health crisis facing youth in the county at the time, I championed the program in 2016, proposing our county’s support and model collaboration.
Designed with and by young people, allcove aims to engage youth and young adults who are struggling long before they hit a crisis point. The idea is that anyone between the ages of 12 and 25 can walk into an allcove center and access mental health support, primary care, substance use addiction services and peer support.
The nonprofit Youth Community Service (YCS) offers a program called Youth Connect, which focuses on teen mental health and suicide prevention. The program helps young people build positive relationships and, in partnership with other youth organizations and adult supporters, undertake service projects and creative outlets that amplify youth voices. I championed county support for Youth Connect in 2018 and again in 2022 because I view the program as a unique model that brings services directly to kids.
Our county also has an obligation to serve those who require the most acute care. To do that, we need to have facilities right here in our county for young people who are at a crisis point in their lives.
I recognized this need nearly 10 years ago when a constituent approached me at a holiday party and asked, “Why aren’t there any inpatient hospital beds for kids and teens facing a mental health crisis here in Santa Clara County?” I soon learned that each year hundreds of young people were being transferred from emergency rooms in our county to hospitals as far as Sacramento for acute psychiatric care.
Less than six months later, I proposed that we build an acute care facility in Santa Clara County for young people in crisis. I’ve since led the effort to add inpatient care to youth-focused mental health services in the county.
We want to encourage, not deter kids and families from seeking the help they need. It’s better therapeutically for these kids to be close to their community when they’re in crisis; that includes loved ones as well as local mental health providers.
After a lot of hard work and too many painful delays, construction is now halfway done and we’re looking forward to opening Santa Clara County’s first inpatient psychiatric hospital for children and teenagers. The project is anticipated to be completed and open to patients in late 2025 in San Jose.
The state-of-the-art facility will provide inpatient hospital care as well as emergency and outpatient psychiatric services for children, adolescents and adults. The 207,000-square-foot facility will be part of a new center for behavioral health and feature divided age-appropriate amenities, including indoor and outdoor therapeutic environments, that allow for a continuum of care in a single setting.
This project has been a long time coming, but it is tremendously satisfying to know that our county will soon be able to locally serve the young people struggling with mental health challenges. Given the need, we can’t get it done soon enough.
Adolescents are under increasing strain and pressure and need the support of trusted adults in their lives. Fortunately, help is available through various county programs and resources. We can and ought to do more to help the young people in our communities stay healthy and thrive.
These resources include:
allcove Palo Alto, https://allcove.org/centers/palo-alto or 650-798-6330;
Youth Community Service, https://youthcommunityservice.org or 650-858-8019; and
Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services, https://bhsd.santaclaracounty.gov/services-group/children-youth-and-family or 800-704-0900.
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