Three new mental health facilities for adults, youth coming to Placer

Published July 26, 2023

A new psychiatric health facility and two behavioral health urgent care centers will be headed to Auburn and Roseville in the coming years under agreements approved this week by the Placer County Board of Supervisors.

Last year, Placer County was awarded a $6.5 million competitive state grant through the Department of Health Care Services’ Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program, a statewide initiative that aims to reduce homelessness, incarceration and unnecessary hospitalizations; and improve outcomes for people with substance use or mental illness.

 Placer also received two previous competitive BHCIP grants:

• $4 million in BHCIP funding to expand mobile crisis services.
• $150,000 in BHCIP funding to conduct a community needs assessment informing future projects.

Staff modified plans for the latest grant as a result of the community needs assessment, and the Board of Supervisors authorized the revised agreements at Tuesday’s meeting. Based on community need and demand, funds will now be used to create a new 16-bed psychiatric health facility and a 10-slot youth urgent care center at a building on the Placer County Government Center campus in North Auburn. Funding will also support construction of a new 12-bed urgent care center for adults at the county’s Project Homekey site, now called Sun Rose, in Roseville. 

The grant will cover facility renovations over the coming years and enable the county to hire additional staff to support the new facilities, including psychiatrists, nurses, therapists and case managers.

The new psychiatric health facility will provide support to individuals with severe mental illness who are in need of psychiatric hospitalization. The youth urgent care center will provide immediate assistance to young people and their families in crisis situations, offering a range of services such as counseling, therapy and medication management. The adult urgent care at Sun Rose will support adults experiencing a crisis related to mental health or substance use, helping them quickly connect to services and supports. It will begin renovations in August and is expected to open later this year. 

 “With these and other improvements we’ve made in the last several years, we’ll be able to serve more Placer residents and help them receive appropriate care in their own community,” said Amy Ellis, director of the county’s Adult System of Care. “More urgent cares will mean more options for people experiencing a mental health crisis to quickly access care outside of the emergency room.”

Placer County Health and Human Services has had a psychiatric health facility on its Cirby Hills campus in Roseville for several decades, and it regularly operates at capacity, requiring the county to use facilities that are much further from home. The county also opened the Lotus Behavioral Health Crisis Center at that same Roseville campus in fall 2022, a six-bed urgent care center primarily for those in mental health crisis. 

For a deeper look at how these facilities will transform mental health and substance use treatment in the county, explore our interactive multimedia piece.

The county will work closely with local mental health providers and community organizations to ensure that the new facilities are accessible to residents in need of services. The urgent care is Roseville is expected to open later this year, while the new Auburn facilities are more than two years away.