The San Luis Obispo County Behavioral Health Veteran's Outreach Program began in 2012 as a preventative way to assist local veterans and their mental health by getting them involved in activities and connecting them with a counselor.
"Maybe it was because they were out at the beach, or on a hike, or fishing, or all of these programs that we did were really meant to give veterans a way to meet the mental health staff without having to come into a clinic," says SLO County Behavioral Health Deputy Director Frank Warren.
But 13 years later, the program is going away.
Proposition 1 was passed by voters in March 2024. It means funding for preventative outreach will be reallocated to treatment beds and supportive housing that is not specific to veterans, but instead to anyone with severe mental health or substance use issues.
"While we'll still be able to treat veterans with any sort of substance use or mental health issue, that prevention effort of meeting them before there's a problem or maybe very early on when they've identified a problem, unfortunately that funding has gone away,” Warren explained.
He says the reallocation is still in the early phases and there are no specific plans for housing yet, but layoffs have happened.
Veterans' preventative programs are not the only ones being affected. Warren says some school and parent programs will be impacted as well.
Michael Patrick lives in Templeton and served in the Marine Corp. He helped form the Central Coast Veterans Helping Veterans organization and says that in San Luis Obispo County, there are more than 14,000 veterans and two thirds of them are 65 or older.
With the Veterans’ Outreach Program discontinuing, Patrick hopes that the community will step up to help.
"They don't get out much. They go to bed like I do around 9 o'clock every night, so if you get them out into the community, to the senior centers, to the American Legion Post, the Elks Lodges, get them out once a month, do a free dinner for veterans' event and see who shows up," Patrick said.
Warren says more changes due to Proposition 1 will be happening throughout the rest of the fiscal year.
All changes must be decided and made public by July 1, 2026. The community can take part in and hear about the decisions by viewing the county's Mental Health Services Act page.
A list of military & veterans' mental health resources provided by the county can be found here.
