$10 million grant expands UCSD’s behavioral health plans

The plans for a behavioral health hub at UCSD’s East Campus Medical Center continue to evolve with the receipt of a $10 million donation from Price Philanthropies.

Plans to use the hospital’s westernmost building as a significant resource to increase midcity psychiatric treatment capacity go back to 2022, when the college-area facility on Interstate 8 was still called Alvarado Hospital Medical Center. The county’s behavioral health department proposed expanding an existing 30-bed geriatric psychiatric unit that was up and running and adding a host of other services to the mix.

UC San Diego Health purchased Alvarado in 2023 for $200 million, and previous mental health hub plans with the county fell apart. The university health system subsequently closed its geriatric psychiatric unit at UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest, shifting senior patients to the existing East Campus unit this summer despite outcry from affected employees and som...