BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Kern County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services is receiving a large sum of grant money from the state to assist with a program that aims to support the infrastructure needed to deal with the mental health crisis among today's youth.
Recently, the California Department of Health Care Services awarded Kern County Behavioral Health with $32 million to help with developing infrastructure, including a new youth crisis stabilization unit, family resource center, and a new housing unit for people with substance and mental health issues.
Director for Kern BHRS Stacy Kuwahara says out of the $32 million that they were granted, $17 million will go toward the creation of the youth crisis stabilization unit and a family resource center. The other $15 million will be allocated for a new housing unit.
“These are very expensive buildings to build and so having these grants allows us to move forward with a resource that we needed last month.”
Kuwahara says one of their main priorities is the youth stabilization unit due to the lack of beds at the current unit. She says as of now, the current crisis unit can only house four people, putting a damper on the community's needs.
“When I don’t have beds at a youth crisis facility, our youth who are in severe mental health crisis end up sitting in our local emergency departments and that is just not the therapeutic place that they need to be during a mental health emergency.”
Kuwahara says the crisis stabilization unit and the family resource center will work hand and hand, having the family resource center offers a different environment for youth where they can be connected with the proper resources and have more time to ensure those efforts are facilitated.
Kuwahara says they are also partnering with the kern county housing authority to convert a motel into a bridge housing facility equipped to house 40 clients.
With the various projects that are coming, Kuwahara says it’ll be some time before the public can access these resources. Kern BHRS anticipates the completion of these resources to be around October of 2026.
