A nonprofit organization wants to start building a state-funded project to expand mental health and crisis services for the young people it serves in Stanislaus and nearby counties.
But it’s not a simple matter.
Aspiranet ran into concerns of law enforcement officials who want to see safety measures to protect the young residents and staff at the Hope Forward Campus near Turlock and minimize police calls to the site.
Aspiranet’s 10.6-acre center on Youngstown Road, between South Golden State Boulevard and Highway 99, has four group homes and a private school called Stanislaus Academy for people ages 9 to 18. It has been a magnet for law enforcement calls, police officials stress, but Aspiranet says many of the problems have been mitigated.
The large social services agency provides foster care, group home care and mental health services for youth in California making the transition out of foster care. Young people at the Turlock center have failed multiple placements with foster care families, the agency said.
Aspiranet is seeking county approval to add a locked psychiatric health facility for young people who struggle with mental health crises. It also proposes to expand with children’s crisis residential service and a crisis stabilization unit.
In 2022, Aspiranet received a $33.4 million award through Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mental health plan for kids, which poured $480.5 million into projects to expand California’s behavioral health infrastructure and crisis services for youth.
The new facilities at the Hope Forward Campus will serve Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties. Details of the proposal and law enforcement concerns were aired at a county Planning Commission meeting July 18.
Vernon Brown, chief executive officer of Aspiranet, said the $33.4 million grant was one of the largest awarded by the state because mental health facilities for youth are not available in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Of the seven psychiatric health facilities that care for minors in California, the closest facility is in Fresno.
Sometimes, young people in a psychiatric crisis are held for days in hospital emergency departments while waiting for psychiatric health facility beds to open in Northern California.
The Turlock center will stabilize young patients and provide higher levels of residential care. The new facilities will be part of a continuum of crisis services for the three counties, Brown said.
When comments were sought from local agencies regarding the Aspiranet project, Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse and Turlock Police Chief Jason Hedden initially opposed the center expansion due to the large number of calls to Aspiranet’s Turlock campus, which taxed police resources in the past few years.
Turlock police responded to 11 calls dealing with runaways from the Hope Forward Campus from 2021 to 2023. The Sheriff’s Department received almost 500 calls for service from 2019 to 2023, including reports of assault with a deadly weapon, battery, vandalism and other violations.
In written comments to county planning staff, Dirkse said deputies arriving at the center dealt with agitated and aggressive subjects and have investigated assaults on center staff members causing serious injury. In September, a staff member at the center was struck by a metal file organizer and briefly lost consciousness, Dirkse wrote.
The sheriff said the site generated more calls than any other county location in 2020. In many cases, a supervisor and three deputies had to respond because of the violent background of juveniles housed there, Dirkse said.
The number of calls dropped significantly in 2021, followed by a gradual increase in 2022 and 2023. The sheriff credited Aspiranet for addressing many of the issues but expressed concern the expansion could increase the calls for assistance.
The police chief and sheriff said in written comments that the violent criminal records and mental and behavioral health issues of the young people at the center were not reflected in a description of the expansion. But Aspiranet staff said the police agencies mostly dealt with juveniles in different programming at the Youngstown Road center.
An agreement with law enforcement
Jeannie Imelio, chief operating officer for Aspiranet in Turlock, told the Planning Commission the large number of calls coincided with the center serving youth in juvenile probation. But the program has changed.
The Turlock center also has supportive housing for young people exiting foster care, including individuals who failed multiple placements with foster care families. Brown said the higher level of services with the expansion should alleviate the safety issues.
The law enforcement officials have reached a temporary agreement with Aspiranet over safety measures at the Turlock campus so that the expansion can be built.
The measures include a 10-foot-high wall to prevent runaways, increased staffing, deescalation zones and better monitoring with cameras and communication equipment. In addition, the locked psychiatric health facility and related services will be authorized to safely restrain young people in crisis and hold them until they are stable.
“The new psychiatric health facility will allow staff to intervene immediately, eliminating the need to call the sheriff during serious escalated events,” a county staff report said.
No more than four youths will live in each group-home unit, which will have the same number of staff.
What happens if police calls increase?
Aspiranet agreed to a development standard that will allow the county planning director, in consultation with the sheriff, to return the project to the county Planning Commission for review if the expanded center generates too many law enforcement calls or impacts the community.
Any increase in the state-licensed number of youths at the site will be subject to city review and approval. Aspiranet is proposing 31 young people in psychiatric and residential care and 13 students in the school.
Under a 1997 county land-use entitlement, the Turlock campus is permitted to have up to 34 young people in group homes on site and 60 youths attending the school. But Aspiranet is currently providing care for fewer young people than what is permitted. The state and educational licensing for the site restricts the numbers to 16 in residential care and 13 students in the school.
Tony Vartan, director of Behavioral and Recovery Services for Stanislaus County, said the new psychiatric health facilities will keep youth from being transported many miles away from family support and home.
The county Planning Commission asked questions about the security plan and then recommended approval of the Aspiranet expansion. The county Board of Supervisors could consider the expansion Aug. 20.
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