Private funding sought for jail mental health unit 

As the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office continues its attempts to reform mental health care for jail inmates, one local nonprofit organization says it's raising funds to help.

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• File Photo Courtesy Of The Slo County Sheriff's Advisory Foundation
• SUPPORTING CHANGE The SLO County Sheriff's Advisory Foundation wants to raise $500,000 to crate a behavioral health unit to help treat mentally ill inmates at the SLO County Jail.

The SLO County Sheriff's Advisory Foundation announced that it is spearheading plans to raise $500,000 to retrofit jail facilities and to house a behavioral health unit. The unit will renovate a combined 8,500 square feet of existing jail space to provide behavioral health treatment and services to mentally ill inmates.

The planned unit will provide dormitory-style housing, a holding cell, renovated offices, and space for daily group and individual treatment. The facility will allow inmates to spend less time in isolated cells, and ease the impact of transportation and housing of inmates in the county's psychiatric unit, according to the foundation.

Approximately $272,000 has been committed to the project to date, with the foundation donating $50,000 and French Medical Center committing an additional $50,000. Seeking private funds will allow the unit to become operational sooner, the foundation stated, with the goal of having the unit open by the end of this year.

Individuals who wish to donate to the facility can do so at the foundation's website, safslo.org. Δ