| The UCSD Outpatient Psychiatric Services first opened as the UCSD Gifford Clinic in 1970 as one of the first San Diego County contracted community mental health centers in the Central Region and the UCSD Department of Psychiatry’s first outpatient teaching service. The Clinic, located on the corner of Fifth and University in Hillcrest until 1975, initially provided outpatient, day treatment and crisis services. In 1975, the Clinic moved to the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Hillcrest and remained there for 24 years. In 1983, the service expanded to include UCSD Psychiatric Associates, a private practice model mental health service, and since that time additional clinical and research programs and services have been added. The official name was changed from the UCSD Gifford Clinic to the UCSD Outpatient Psychiatric Services in 1986 to include this wider array of programs and services.
Since June 2000, the larger UCSD Outpatient Psychiatric Services (OPS) have been housed in a four-story building owned by UCSD and located within the UCSD Medical Center Complex in Hillcrest overlooking the Bachman Canyon. Our proximity to the Medical Center enables our patients to have easy access to primary and specialty physical health care, emergency room treatment and pharmaceutical services. We are also within walking distance of the UCSD adult psychiatric inpatient Neurobehavioral Unit enabling consultation with hospital staff and joint staffing of our mutual patients. The UCSD Senior Behavioral Health Unit and older adult services are also within walking distance. |
