By Marycon Young, Vitals contributor
A mother struggling to find mental health support for her child. A patient waiting in the emergency department for psychiatric care. A teen experiencing anxiety who doesn’t know where to turn. These are real situations happening every day—and why Sutter Health is focused on transforming mental health care access across California.
Here are five ways Sutter is expanding mental health services this year.
- Mental Health + Primary Care = Same Location
Many people seek mental health support but often face long waits. Sutter is changing that by embedding behavioral health specialists into primary care. This structure allows psychiatrists and care coordinators to work alongside primary care doctors.
A successful pilot at two pediatric clinics within Sutter’s Palo Alto Medical Foundation helped patients better manage their mental health symptoms. They reported experiencing improvements in three weeks with the pilot versus about two months without the pilot. To further expand access, Sutter is strengthening its collaboration with Concert Health. The virtual behavioral health provider connects patients to care within 48 hours. This service is currently available in Lakeport, Crescent City, Palo Alto and Dublin, with more locations on the way.
- Faster Emergency Response
For patients in a mental health crisis, every minute counts. In 2024, Sutter Health made meaningful progress in reducing the time for those with behavioral health needs spent in the emergency room. The average wait time decreased from 678 minutes in 2022 to 611 minutes in 2024.
For those who required a transfer to inpatient psychiatric care, the reduction was even more significant—from 1,525 minutes to 1277 minutes, a 248-minute improvement in time spent in the emergency department.
A key driver of this improvement is XFERALL, a digital platform that accelerates patient transfers to psychiatric facilities. Sutter also enhanced its on-demand telepsychiatry services, enabling emergency department teams to stabilize patients faster.
- Expanding Local Access
In 2024, Sutter provided care to more than 27,000 patients seeking outpatient behavioral health support , a 28.6% increase year-over-year, with 187,454 total visits.
To build on this momentum, Sutter opened new behavioral health clinics in Turlock, Modesto and Lodi in early 2025, helping more patients have access to care close to home.
- Growing Specialty Services
Sutter is expanding specialty behavioral health programs, as well. They include eating disorder treatments, a perinatal outpatient program in Sacramento and expanded substance use disorder treatment at Merritt Peralta Institute in the East Bay.
Sutter is also scaling up partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, which provide more structured, specialized treatment beyond traditional outpatient care.
- More Providers & Crisis Support
In 2024, Sutter added 49 behavioral health clinicians, increasing the workforce to 167—a 41.5% increase. This growing team includes 45 psychiatrists, 109 therapists and psychologists, and 13 psychiatric advanced practice clinicians, supporting better access to specialized care.
Sutter is also strengthening crisis intervention efforts by streamlining referrals and implementing a Zero Suicide framework to reinforce suicide prevention.
“We’ve made significant progress in expanding behavioral health services, and 2025 is about building on that momentum,” said Dan Peterson, CEO of Sutter Health’s behavioral health service line. “By integrating mental health into more aspects of care, improving emergency response and expanding access through new programs and partnerships, we’re helping more patients receive the right care at the right time.”
To learn more about behavioral health services at Sutter Health, visit sutterhealth.org.
