The San Joaquin County Mental Health Services Psychiatric Health Facility was inaugurated in 1982. As a 40-bed inpatient program, the facility was designed to treat individuals in need of intensive therapeutic psychiatric services. The culturally diverse program employs four inpatient psychiatrists, four social workers, psychiatric technicians, mental health specialists, an out-reach worker, registered nurses, an occupational therapist, a recreational therapist and clerical staff to provide quality mental health care in a patient-centered, supportive, culturally sensitive milieu.

Following the spirit of the Mission Statement of San Joaquin County Department of Health Care Services, The Psychiatric Health Facility's objective is one of community service with the focus on individualized treatment, prevention, early intervention, and rehabilitative services.

This inpatient facility is separated into three suites to provide progressive care designed to meet different treatment needs. The goal of the Psychiatric Health Facility is to provide short-term quality treatment in order to return patients to the community. Psychiatric interventions are provided on a 24-hour basis to assist individuals in controlling the disabling effects of mental illness or related emotional problems.

The average length of stay is approximately 7 days. All therapeutic efforts are concentrated on enabling the patient to gain insight into their problems, developing self-monitoring capabilities, learning appropriate adaptation skills, and encouraging medication compliance when appropriate. Treatment focus is on emphasizing the patients' abilities to help themselves. This is accomplished through assessment and intensive therapy as provided by Psychiatrists, Clinical Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists in order to enable the patients to meet their goals.

The patient services of the Psychiatric Health Facility are provided within the framework of an education orientation. Coordinated rehabilitative services offer medication education to the patients to maximize the quality of compliance and self-monitoring. Milieu therapy encourages appropriate adjustment and modification of behavior in a structured and safe environment. Discharged patients are encouraged to attend follow-up Outpatient Services, Adult Case Management Services, or Day Treatment Services. In addition, the patients are frequently referred to post-hospital facilities, Grant House and Mourfield House, which are Crisis Residential Programs. Bright House, another short-term behavioral program, is also used, where supervised, group home treatment continues after acute hospitalization.

In the challenging mental health care environment, the Psychiatric Health Facility remains committed to the objective of community services and the provision of quality care in a patient-centered, supportive, culturally sensitive environment.