Mental Health & Addiction Treatment in La Mesa, CA for Medi-Cal Adults

Golden Coast Rehab is an outpatient mental health and addiction treatment center at 8809 La Mesa Blvd. Our most-visited local pages: anxiety treatment in La Mesa, depression treatment in La Mesa, and the La Mesa partial hospitalization program., Suite 102, La Mesa, CA 91942. Every program described anywhere on this site is delivered in this building; there are no satellite clinics.

La Mesa sits in San Diego County's East County, just off Interstate 8 near its junction with State Route 125, which is the practical reason clients reach us comfortably from most of the county.

Two Public Contracts, One La Mesa Building

Golden Coast Rehab is a contracted provider of Specialty Mental Health Services (Partial Hospitalization Program and Intensive Outpatient Program) for the County of San Diego, Behavioral Health Services, under County Contract 575462. See PHP and mental health IOP.

We also hold DHCS substance use disorder certification 370254AP for outpatient detoxification, outpatient, intensive outpatient, and medication-assisted treatment. See addiction treatment programs. We do not provide residential or inpatient treatment, and the substance use partial hospitalization track, while licensed, is not yet enrolling.

Medi-Cal works the same way under both contracts: specialty mental health and Drug Medi-Cal services are administered by San Diego County Behavioral Health Services rather than by your individual plan, so members of any of the county's four managed care plans, Blue Shield of California Promise, Community Health Group, Kaiser Permanente, and Molina, can be covered here at no cost when clinical criteria are met. See how Medi-Cal works here.

The First to Open Under the County's New Program

San Diego County identified a gap in its behavioral health system: no facility offered partial hospitalization or intensive outpatient levels of care to adult Medi-Cal members whose primary condition is mental health, a missing rung between weekly outpatient therapy and psychiatric hospitalization. The County created a contract to fill it. Golden Coast Rehab is one of four award recipients of that first contract, and the first mental-health-primary PHP/IOP facility for adult Medi-Cal members in San Diego County to begin operating under the County's new program. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program, and both our mental health and substance use programs are delivered inside it.

That gap did not close on its own. Co-founders Dean Scaduto and Daniel Leiderman advocated at San Diego County Behavioral Health Advisory Board meetings and petitioned the Board of Supervisors to help identify it before the contract existed. A plain way to picture what was missing: an education system offering only kindergarten and university would fail most students, and PHP and IOP are the elementary and high school in between, now available as Medi-Cal day treatment in San Diego. A full continuum of intensity is what produces the best outcomes.

Built around the barriers people actually face

Housing and transportation are core program features here, not add-ons. We work diligently and closely with housing partners, and helping patients find housing is built into the program. We also operate a van that transports patients to and from treatment. And because this building holds DHCS substance use disorder certification 370254AP alongside the County contract, co-occurring substance use can be treated at the same site: mental health primary, with dual-diagnosis capability.

Who is eligible, and how to start

The program serves adults 18 and older with a primary mental health condition who are Medi-Cal beneficiaries in San Diego County; there are no youth services. Start with a call to our admissions line at (858) 925-8589, answered 24 hours a day, or reach the San Diego County Access and Crisis Line at 1-888-724-7240.

The Team Behind the La Mesa Programs

Dr. Sanjai Mathew Thankachen, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist, is Medical Director and manages medication decisions across both clinical lanes. Matthew Beck is Program Director and Clinical Director, and Jose Feliciano, AMFT, is Lead Therapist, with behavioral health technician support in the building daily. As of July 2026 the programs are staffed at two clinicians for every five clients, and the clinicians who run your groups are the same team you step down with. Meet the La Mesa team.

Medi-Cal at Our La Mesa Facility

Medi-Cal is welcome at our La Mesa facility on any San Diego County plan (Blue Shield Promise, Community Health Group, Kaiser Permanente, or Molina), and both lanes of care are covered at no cost to you when clinical criteria are met. Mental health PHP and IOP are Specialty Mental Health Services under County of San Diego Contract 575462; detox, outpatient, intensive outpatient, and medication-assisted treatment are covered through Drug Medi-Cal under our DHCS certification 370254AP. No referral is needed. Call (858) 925-8589 and we verify your coverage before you commit to anything, or read how Medi-Cal works here.

Who We Treat at Our La Mesa Facility

We treat adults 18 and older from across San Diego County. Clients travel to us from San Diego, El Cajon, Spring Valley, Lemon Grove, Santee, Lakeside, Chula Vista, National City, and further north.

From First Call to First Day

Starting treatment here is a short sequence, and admissions carries most of it. The first call is free and confidential, answered 24 hours a day at (619) 313-6223. From there, a brief ASAM-based phone assessment covers symptoms, history, substance use, medications, and safety, then recommends a level of care. We verify your coverage before you commit to anything, and a first assessment can usually be scheduled within days. The full sequence is on our La Mesa admissions page.

County Resources and Crisis Help for La Mesa

The San Diego County Access and Crisis Line is the County's 24-hour front door for behavioral health, at 1-888-724-7240. It is free and confidential, and it can connect you to urgent help or to County providers whether or not you ever call us. The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is reachable by call or text at 988, and 911 is the right call if someone is in immediate danger.

For county-level context on the need this building serves, our San Diego County mental health statistics guide collects the published HHSA and Medical Examiner numbers in one place.

To ask whether our programs fit, call (619) 313-6223: answered 24 hours a day.