HIGHLIGHTS

Behavioral Health

Nearly all of us are affected by behavioral health struggles, directly or indirectly. We may be one of the one-of-every-four American adults who directly lives and copes with a mental health condition; or one of the nearly 17% who live with a substance use disorder. Or we may care about someone who does. The County of San Diego continues to work hard to help everyone who is affected through programs based on access, prevention and continuous care.

Taking Action to Improve Behavioral Health

In July 2024, the County broke ground on a new Crisis Stabilization Unit in El Cajon. The unit is the first in East County and is on track to open in early 2026. The County also partnered with Sharp Healthcare later, in January 2025, to add six new Crisis Stabilization Unit beds at the Chula Vista Medical Center. The units and beds give people who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis a calm, better place than emergency rooms, hospitals or jails to become stable and seek help. Once the Chula Vista and El Cajon units open, the County will have eight Crisis Stabilization Units located throughout the region.

“The best part of my day is making that connection. It can be as simple as getting them a meal, listening to them and asking them, 'how are you doing?' This is a great thing about the Crisis Stabilization Units; they are a soft spot to land where we get them resources to take them to their next destination.”

Connie Johnson, Peer Support Specialist

In August 2024, the County reported that it had distributed more than 28,000 kits of naloxone, also known as Narcan, to help save people from dying from opioid and fentanyl overdoses. Nearly 4,000 of those overdose-reversing medication kits were made accessible to the public through vending machines stationed all around the county. From January 2023 through June 2025, the number of kits distributed has grown to more than 88,000 in total, with more than 10,000 distributed through vending machines.

In October 2024, the County marked the one-year anniversary of its “CARE” — Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment — Act program. In 2023, the County became one of the first in California to take part in CARE Act partnerships with the courts and public defenders. The program helps severely impaired people who live with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders by letting them take voluntary, active roles in agreements to get housing support and behavioral health help. As of June 30, 2025, the County has 135 CARE agreements and has celebrated 11 graduates.

In January 2025, the County’s rapidly growing Mobile Crisis Response Team Program celebrated four years of helping people who face behavioral health crises. The teams send trained behavioral health experts rather than law enforcement, when appropriate, into non-violent situations to de-escalate and help people who are experiencing a mental health crisis. The program has grown exponentially since the County launched it as a pilot program in 2021. In the program’s first year, teams answered 131 calls. As of Aug. 2, 2025, the total number of calls has jumped to more than 24,000. 

County of San Diego - Government

County Behavioral Health art programs are extremely popular and are revealing impressive talents. To share this success, they held a public art show, where clients had the chance to showcase and celebrate their work with their peers and an audience.

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In January 2025, the County opened a new one-stop Community Resource Center in Ramona where residents can access County resources like mental health services, nutrition, healthcare and financial assistance all in one place. The $15 million facility was planned and built with input from the community and replaced a building that had been in operation since 1988. The center is expected to see around 6,000 visits in the next year and provide new services for seniors and veterans. Nearly 9,000 Ramona residents are now receiving County services.

In May, the County’s Behavioral Health Services department was awarded $29.1 million in state funds to create new mental health and substance use treatment services. The money will be used for two main projects, one that will create a new substance use treatment center with 73 new substance use treatment beds and 16 recuperative care beds on County-owned property in National City, scheduled to open in 2026. The second will help pay for a first-of-its-kind Children’s Crisis Residential Care Facility with 16 residential care beds in the County’s Polinsky Children’s Center in Kearny Mesa.