Client & Family Information

Welcome to Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health Services (BHS) 

County Behavioral Health Services (BHS) is a Division of the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency (HSA). At BHS, we care for the whole person with compassion and respect your cultural values and unique needs. Our goal is to help you achieve and maintain long term health, wellness, and recovery; and to foster healthy families and communities. We aim to provide an integrative service delivery model through strength based, accessible, culturally, and linguistically appropriate services. We work in partnership with community treatment providers to provide outpatient, residential, crisis services, and care coordination care addressing specialty mental health and substance use service needs of Santa Cruz County Medi-Cal beneficiaries and uninsured residents.

The BHS Access Line is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer questions about services, arrange appointments, and make referrals. To call the Access Line, dial (800) 952-2335. 

Individuals seeking services from BHS often present with complex problems that include mental health, substance use, and physical health needs. With your input and focus on necessary comprehensive care, our treatment staff strive to recognize, assess, and address the complexities of the lives of the people served.

Recovery is real. We see it every day. We have the utmost respect for the work and strength clients in recovery demonstrate.

In order to give you an initial orientation about the services available to you, we have carefully assembled this Welcome Packet that includes all the information you need to start accessing our network of care.  

This information is available in paper form without charge upon request, Paper forms are available at our Behavioral Health Clinics and the County will mail requested paper copies via post office within 5 business days. Please contact your provider or BHS ACCESS at (800) 952-2335. For hearing impaired clients: Dial 711 or  or TDD for hearing impaired: 711 or or send us an email.

What is a “Beneficiary”?

The person who is enrolled in the Medi-Cal insurance plan is called a “beneficiary”. Santa Cruz County residents who are enrolled in the Medi-Cal insurance plan with Central California Alliance for Health (CCAH, or “the Alliance”) have access to included Medi-Cal benefits related to mental health and substance use disorder services. BHS provides specialty mental health and substance use disorder services to children, youth, transition age, adult and older adults.

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