UC San Diego Health Sciences is expanding its commitment to behavioral health through research, innovative care and education initiatives that support students, patients and communities across the region.
This commitment is taking shape through one of the nation’s most ambitious and integrated psychiatric care initiatives, now underway at East Campus Medical Center at UC San Diego Health and made possible by a $10 million gift from Price Philanthropies. This new behavioral health care hub will bring comprehensive, whole-person care under one roof — integrating clinical care, research and workforce training to better serve people living with mental illness and their families by late 2027.
The need is urgent. In San Diego County, approximately 18% of adults experience moderate to severe mental illness, with an estimated one-third of those who need behavioral health services going without them. At the same time, the county has fewer than half the inpatient acute psychiatric beds needed to meet demand.
Closing that gap will require more than expanding capacity. It will require reimagining how behavioral health care is delivered — connecting patients to the right care at the right time while advancing new approaches through research and innovation. The hub will accelerate that work through clinical trials targeting severe mental illness, including studies of ketamine, transcranial magnetic stimulation and emerging psychedelic interventions.
Improving access to mental health care for our students is equally important. The new Triton Health and Wellness Building brings essential health services together at the heart of campus, creating an accessible experience for students, faculty and staff.
Student health services are often fragmented, operating in isolation from broader care networks. At UC San Diego, we’ve taken a different approach by joining Student Health and Well-Being and UC San Diego Health. Our model demonstrates what becomes possible when student well-being is supported by the full strength of an academic health system.
That approach is reflected on the building’s top floor, where Counseling and Psychological Services and the UC San Diego School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry’s College Mental Health Program work side by side. These integrated services build on the successful 2024 launch of Willo, a mental health and wellness app developed by the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Center for Health Innovation in collaboration with students.
Together, these initiatives are transforming behavioral health services in our communities and building models with the power to influence care far beyond San Diego.
