San Luis Obispo County facility closes following lawsuit, lack of clients
February 28, 2025
Ribbon cutting at San Luis Obispo County Crisis Stabilization Unit in 2018
By KAREN VELIE
San Luis Obispo County closed one of its mental health facilities less than three weeks after a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against the county and the contracted operator of the facility.
The county, however, points to the $1.5 million a month it spent on the crisis stabilization unit as the reason for the Oct. 10, 2024 closure. At that time, the unit was serving an average of 1.5 clients a day.
Following the deaths of several mentally ill patients, including Andrew Holland, in 2018 the county opened the crisis stabilization unit. The unit was supposed to “allow medical professionals to stabilize up to four community members experiencing serious mental health issue at a time.”
SLO County outsourced management of the unit to Sierra Mental Wellness Group.
Shortly after the facility first opened in 2018, employees began complaining of mismanagement and failures to follow the law. For example, the unit was a 24-hour facility, and was only permitted to keep patients for up to 72 hours under limited circumstances, a requirement staff told CalCoastNews was frequently ignored.
A Paso Robles teen died at a San Luis Obispo County in May, 2024, though it would be eight to 10 hours before anyone noticed. After complaining for months about mismanagement at the facility, the teen’s death prompted four employees to hand in their notices.
The mother of the deceased teen filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court on Sept. 23, 2024 seeking monetary damages and closure of the facility. Seventeen days later, SLO County closed the facility.
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