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The three-story building, which cost $470 million to construct, features colorful designs, large windows and generous outdoor space that includes a basketball court. Photo by Joyce Chu.<\/p>\nFor years, children in need of acute psychiatric care in Santa Clara County were being shipped hours away to get treatment. That is about to change as the county opens a new inpatient behavioral health facility for youth.<\/p>\n
The Behavioral Health Pavilion, located on the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Campus (VMC), will give 35 children and teenagers a safe place to recover from an mental health crises. The 207,000-square-feet behavioral health facility will have a separate acute inpatient section with 42 beds for adults. The adult section will replace the existing adult facility.<\/p>\n
The 77-bed three-story building cost $470 million to construct. It features colorful designs, large windows and generous outdoor space that includes a basketball court. The child and teens section of the hospital will provide inpatient and outpatient psychiatric and medical care, emergency psychiatric services and urgent care. A skywalk is being integrated into the design to enable easy access to comprehensive medical services throughout the VMC campus. It is set to open for service on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
The three-story building, which cost $470 million to construct, features colorful designs, large windows and generous outdoor space that includes a basketball court. Photo by Joyce Chu.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary facility, and the vision that I had back in the day has now been realized,\u201d former District 5 County Supervisor Joe Simitian, who spearheaded the project with former Supervisor Cindy Chavez, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWe can do so much good for so many kids and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simitian first learned of the county having no beds for youth or teenagers in 2015, when a constituent approached him. He was shocked to discover that a county with so much need wasn\u2019t taking care of its own. While the county had psychiatric beds for adults, children and adolescents were required to be treated in separate facilities for safety measures.<\/p>\n
That kickstarted his yearslong effort to establish the Behavioral Health Pavilion, which faced numerous delays and mounting costs. Supervisors initially approved the new facility back in 2017, with a goal to be online by 2023. But construction setbacks halted the project and some policymakers argued it was too costly<\/a>.<\/p>\n About 375 children are in need of acute care each year, but due to the lack of beds, 65% had to be transported to facilities outside the county for care\u2013 including Sacramento, Vallejo and Santa Rosa, according to statistics provided by the county.<\/p>\n Aside from the 35 beds at the Behavioral Health Pavilion\u2014 14 beds for children age 12 and under and 21 beds for teens \u2014 San Jose Behavioral Health also has 34 beds for teenagers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe need is great, and the need is still not being met by the level or the availability of services in our county,\u201d Dr. Kristoffer Strauss, medical director of acute psychiatric services at VMC, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n County Supervisors Susan Ellenberg and Otto Lee declared that Santa Clara County had a mental health crisis in 2022<\/a>, due to a severe shortage of acute care inpatient psychiatric beds and services.<\/p>\n \u201cFor too long, young people facing both psychiatric and medical challenges often experienced fragmented care, navigating separate systems that were not designed to serve the whole person,\u201d Ellenberg said on Monday at the grand opening of the Behavioral Health Pavilion. \u201cThis building stands as one of the strongest signs of hope for our county. It is a visible indicator of what can be accomplished through long-term commitment, shared vision\u00a0and sustained public investment in the health and well-being of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n Strauss said that there\u2019s been an increase of adult patients coming to seek psychiatric services year over year. Their mental health needs are more severe than before, with more acute levels of psychosis. Because VMC is also a receiving center, there\u2019s also been a significant increase of youth coming to the facility over the past year, even though they didn\u2019t have a dedicated unit to treat children.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to put them in a separate unit that frankly, is not therapeutic,\u201d Strauss said. \u201cSo we are already seeing and treating kids even though we\u2019re not in a dedicated unit for kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Terry Downing, a mother whose daughter became psychotic overnight due to an autoimmune disease that affected her brain, said the Pavilion will be life changing for families.<\/p>\n Back in 2011 when her\u00a0 daughter started developing mental health conditions, a psychiatrist misdiagnosed the 13-year-old with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It wasn\u2019t until 10 months later that a specialist identified Downing\u2019s daughter as having autoimmune encephalitis of the brain, and by then it was too late for antibiotics to work.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0103-1024x768.jpeg\")
The 207,000-square-feet Behavioral Health Pavilion will have 14 beds for children ages 12 and under and 21 beds for teens. It will also have a separate secure section with 42 beds for adults. Photo by Joyce Chu.<\/p>\n
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