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Mental health hospital could come to Templeton

November 17, 2014

mental health

A nearly 100-bed mental health hospital may be built Templeton if the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voices approval. [Tribune]

Louisiana-based Vizion Health LLC is proposing to build a 96-bed mental health hospital, along with a smaller assisted living facility for seniors, on a vacant parcel across from Twin Cities Community Hospital on Tablas Road. If built, the center would be the first of its kind in San Luis Obispo County, where the only mental health hospital is a county facility that limits stays to only several days.

Vizion Health’s proposal calls for a $25 million hospital that treats depression, anxiety disorder, suicidal thoughts, schizophrenia, social phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and eating disorders.

The structure would have two stories and house patients for an average of 7 to 10 days. About half of the patients would be children and adolescents.

“It’s not a locked-down facility. People will be there at will,” said project architect Jan Hochhauser. “A physician can admit somebody, but then the person can sign out against medical advice, just like you can at an existing hospital.”

A prior project at the site called for a nearly 200-bed assisted living facility. That plan fell through due to lack of financing and demand.

Opponents of the hospital are concerned that mentally ill patients will be released to the streets of Templeton.


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Come on people, North County need these jobs. I just graduated from Cal Poly and I am from Templeton and I can’t find a job. It’s a shame if I have to leave my home county. Get the nimbys out of my town!


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“Vizion Health’s proposal calls for a $25 million hospital that treats depression, anxiety disorder, suicidal thoughts, schizophrenia, social phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and eating disorders.”

GOOD GRIEF! They’re going to need a facility 10 times the size of the one proposed….perhaps even larger.


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Hear that sucking sound residential neighbors?? It is the sound of your property value going down.


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You may live near a mentally ill person or perhaps a pedophile. Your neighbor or even a family member. I am sure of this. However I understand the concern. Perhaps the mental facility would be already planning a course of action. Not every mentally ill person is homeless or deranged. You are stereotyping. Some are wealthy and some are young or old.


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I feel that this is fantastic! There has been such a need in the North County for services such as this for a very long time.


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This is an acute treatment facility where patients stay 5-10 days until they are stabilized. This means that when fully operating, it will treat about 4000 patients per year.


Currently they say they will not take MediCal patients or 5150, 5250 patients. In January, the Affordable Care Act will pay for some MediCal patients such as the homeless. When that happens, then the private for profit hospitals such as this one will treat homeless mental patients (5150/5250) from our county and other counties, if they have the space.


This is not a particular problem, except that all patients are released at the hospital door. Unless the county sets up a program to return homeless mental patients to where they originated, SLO County and Templeton, in particular, could be the new home of a growing mental homeless population which could be quite costly in the long run.


Did I mention that Templeton has no homeless facilities at all–no food and no shelter.?


The other problem is that the site has neighborhoods on three sides. I don’t know of one of these hospitals that has been placed in a neighborhood. Ventura’s hospital sits on 16 acres, and Fremont’s hospital is urban.


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“Did I mention that Templeton has no homeless facilities at all–no food and no shelter.?”


Thanks for the insight…


And as a result, Templeton does not have an issue with the homeless like Paso, Atascadero, and SLO.


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Plastic surgery for that tennis fit look, custom vision and boob jobs may have to yield to those who need their head examined?


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I’d be in favor, if it could treat Supervisor Gibson. Diagnosis: status post Hx megalomania.


and Supervisor Hill: Hx IPOPD (idiopathic public official personality disorder)


and ______________ (insert your own wayward public official)


we could actually make quite a list, even work me in there:


Lame Commenter: depression and disappointment over social order collapse and degradation, issuing from the Liar In Chief, on down……………


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Smallest bedroom community in the County, rural area, and these want a resolving door mental health facility here. Put it where the real problem is, San Luis Obispo and South County.


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A facility of this nature should be welcome anywhere in the county. If you have had any family or friends that have had to deal with the current mental health facilities in slo, you would welcome a facility such as this.


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My comment wasn’t intended to diss county mental health. It was only to point out that the facilities that we have are inadequate and underfunded for the need in our county. A facility of this sort would be of great benefit for all of us.


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I like it, it will bring some good paying jobs


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Your comment, “rural area”? isn’t this an already concentrated medical office area? right next to a hospital seems to make reasonable sense.


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How about next to the County Jail?


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In the jail ?


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