Youth drop-in health center in the works in San Mateo

“The uniqueness and innovation of the allcove model is that it includes mental and behavioral health, physical health, educational and employment support as well as linkages to peer-to-peer support and family support,” Eddie Flores, PHCD director of Youth Behavioral Health Programs, said.

As one of five grant recipients, PHCD received $2 million from the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to launch allcove over a four-year period. PHCD, a California special district that brings health-focused services and programs to the mid-Peninsula community, plans to award the contract to a local service provider for the center to open in spring 2023. The grant is part of an ambitious plan to expand allcove youth drop-in centers statewide and eventually nationally.

Two allcove centers opened in Santa Clara County last year with $15 million in funding from the county’s Mental Health Services Act Innovation Plan and in partnership with the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing. Modeled on community-based early intervention programs like Headspace in Australia, allcove helps youth with mild to moderate mental health needs.

Accessing early intervention care has not been easy for youth, said Steven Adelsheim, center director and a Stanford professor.

“The data says that half of all mental health conditions start by the age of 14. And we really have not, within this country, developed a public mental health system for young people to come in comfortably and get the care they need,” Adelsheim said. “Usually, young people don’t come into the system until there’s been a crisis, whether it’s an emergency room visit for drug overdose, suicide attempt or some other major problems. So, we’re trying to create spaces that young people will feel comfortable and feel like they’re designed for them to then get that early care.”

Youth advisory groups are closely involved in the development and programming of allcove centers. The PHCD youth advisory group helped select the site location in San Mateo. They have input in the design of the space, how it should be used and who should staff it.

A tour of the allcove center in San Mateo, while still under construction, showed a layout of rooms that could be used for clinical, counseling, educational and work purposes as well as for recreational and social uses, depending on the diverse needs and desires of youth.

“What we envision is if someone is to arrive at our location, whether just for a Friday night board game, you’re certainly welcome. Whether they want to see our nurse practitioner, you can do that as well. Whether they just want to hang out and look at their laptop and work on their resume or applications for a summer job, they can certainly do that. It’s all-inclusive, under one roof, centrally located,” Flores said.

Flores added that allcove was geared toward vulnerable and marginalized youth populations in particular, including but not limited to LGBTQ+ youth, unhoused youth, foster care youth and indigenous youth.

Affordability also was key to the allcove model. It aimed to support everyone who came through its doors, irrespective of their insurance status, Adelheim said. But financial sustainability was a challenge. The state grant for the five most recent allcove centers will end December 2026.

Still, Adelheim was optimistic that funding for allcove would continue with support from the state. The governor’s office recently invested $4.7 billion in an initiative known as California’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health that signaled a strong commitment to improving youth’s access to mental health services.

“The plan announced [Aug. 18] will make it easier than ever before for kids to access critical mental health and substance use services — in their schools, in their homes and in their communities,” the governor’s press release said.

Note to readers: This story has been changed to correct a mistake. The district received $2 million from the MHSOAC.