New mental health facility opens in Central Valley

MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) -- A new hospital opened in the North Valley to help meet a significant and growing need for mental health care across the Central Valley.

Monday, leaders and staff from Valley Children's Hospital and Universal Health Services held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the River Vista Behavioral Health Hospital.

The new, 128-bed facility is located off Goodwin Way in Madera.

To start, it will serve up to 10 patients.

But in the coming months, mental health experts will be able to provide around-the-clock care for people ages five and up who are experiencing depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.

Right now, there's only one other local mental health hospital -- a 16-bed facility in Fresno.

When those spaces are filled, families are forced to travel long distances to seek help.

"A lot of stress is placed on the family in a system that is already stressed by having to send them out of the area as far as Sacramento, Bakersfield, Los Angeles," says River Vista CEO Robert Dutile. "There's a strong need for these beds here locally."

River Vista Behavioral Health will begin by providing inpatient psychiatric treatment for adults.

But eventually, it will provide a full range of behavioral health services for children, and young people.