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A leading mental health services provider is closing its Redwood City center to make way for a new state-of-the-art campus development by San Mateo County.
But, the approximately 120-bed Cordilleras Mental Health Center at 200 Edmonds Road will re-emerge as part of the revamped site.
“The current building is old and aging and ready to be replaced,” said Daphne Phillips, spokesperson for Alameda-based Telecare Corp., which runs the Redwood City facility and more than 80 other programs nationwide.
The replacement will be a “fabulous new campus,” she said.
Construction on the $160 million Cordilleras Health Campus should finish later this year, said Michelle Durand, San Mateo County chief communications officer.
However, that project would result in the closure of Telecare’s existing Redwood City program and, starting in June the layoff of about 100 employees, Phillips said. The patients there will also have to be placed elsewhere.
Telecare is working with the employees’ union – the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees based in Washington, D.C. – to help the workers transition to other job positions and locations, she said.
Other staff could return to a smaller Telecare program in Redwood City as part of the new campus while others could land roles elsewhere within the company, Phillips said. Still, other staff could find positions with providers on the remade campus.
Similarly, some patients could go back to the Redwood City location after the county’s project is done, Phillips said, while other clients could be transferred to lower levels of care in the community if deemed appropriate.
“So there’s a plan for every single person,” Phillips said. “The old Cordilleras building will not be closed until all of the people currently served have been transferred to the new facilities on the campus or transferred to other community settings or services.”
The remade site will measure 100,000 square feet and feature 121 beds, according to the county in a project Web page. It will house four different providers, each accommodating up to 16 patients, and have separate housing for 57 other clients.
Telecare has won a contract with the county to be one of those providers and run the 57-bed housing center, Phillips said.
The campus will also include a multipurpose room, an arts-and-crafts center, a chapel, secure outdoor courtyards, gardens and sports courts, the county said. In addition, the campus is being built as a net-zero-energy facility with sustainable elements such as a green infrastructure and electric-vehicle chargers.
The campus will be “one of the county’s most important resources in caring for its most vulnerable mentally-ill residents,” said Jei Africa, director of the county’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services.
“With an improved campus focusing on wellness, rehabilitation and recovery, we’re able to provide current best practices and anticipate future advances in behavioral-health care in a setting that promotes dignity and respect for clients and staff,” Africa said.