Grand opening of Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery campus

MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Department held a grand opening for their new 'main campus.'

It provides a new resource to treat mental health and substance abuse in Merced and the counties that touch it.

Now we can streamline our services, have staff in one location, be more efficient on the service we provide to our consumers and to the staff," said Behavioral Health Director Yvonnia Brown.

All their services are now under one roof.

The new three story facility features everything from a wellness center to recovery services. The second floor is completely dedicated to substance abuse. They even have a children's campus.

"Now you have more of a state of the art building, but you have the ability to provide an array of services under one location which will make the transmission of care coordination remarkable," said Brown.

The facility took 3.5 years to construct.

Instead of building a new campus from the ground up, they chose to transform the former Mercy Hospital to preserve a piece of their history.

"Honestly this was a historic landmark for many people. People were born here, families work here, it is a tremendous community landmark and the community advised that the Board of Supervisors do something with it," said Brown.

The new campus will help them treat thousands more, regardless of their ability to pay.

"If they come in here, there is no wrong door, every door is the right door," said Brown.