Directory · California licensing data as of 1 October 2026
Every residential treatment program in California.
Crisis houses, adult and teen residential, eating disorder programs, substance use treatment and psychiatric hospitals. Drawn from the state's own licensing records, sorted by what each one is for, with a plain guide to how you actually get a bed.
Or pick your county on the map. Press / anywhere to search.
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Where to start
Tell us what is happening.
Who is this for?
What is going on?
Browse by type
Every kind of residential care.
Crisis residential
Crisis residential programs are small homes, staffed around the clock, where an adult can stay through a mental health crisis that is serious but does not need a hospital.
Adult mental health residential
California certifies four kinds of longer residential care for adults, from open houses built for 3–12 months to locked rehabilitation centers. Every one is here, with what sets them apart.
Teen residential
Teens are served by four separate systems: private treatment homes, short-term residential therapeutic programs, locked treatment, and teen substance use programs. Which one fits depends mostly on who pays and who refers.
Eating disorder residential
California's Department of Public Health licenses these homes as congregate living health facilities, but its file does not say which ones treat eating disorders. We matched them by operator name and street address, and checked each against the operator's own pages on 1 October 2026.
Substance use residential
The full Department of Health Care Services list of residential programs, including withdrawal management (detox). Filter by county and by who the program serves.
Developmental disability homes
For children and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism, California runs small crisis homes and enhanced behavioural support homes. They are licensed by Social Services and reached through a regional center, not by calling a home.
Self-harm and suicidal thoughts
What to do tonight, how residential care fits, and what a good program does differently.
Psychiatric hospitals
Hospitals and psychiatric health facilities provide short, locked, 24-hour acute care. Most people arrive through an emergency room or crisis team, then step down to residential or a day program.
Check a license
Look up any program's license, inspection visits and complaints yourself.
Medi-Cal
Most public residential beds are reached through your county behavioral health plan, not by calling the house. County access lines.
Private insurance
California's SB 855 requires state-regulated commercial plans to cover medically necessary treatment for every DSM and ICD mental health and substance use condition, judged by nonprofit clinical criteria. If a plan says no, appeal, then ask for a free Independent Medical Review through the Department of Managed Health Care. Large employers' self-funded plans follow federal rules instead.
Three questions that save weeks
- What is your license, and from which department?
- Do you have a bed now? If not, how long is the wait?
- If things get worse during the stay, do you discharge or hold the bed?
Residential care ends. Someone still has to be there every week.
The TherapyCalifornia directory is not open yet. We are recruiting therapists and will publish a profile only after its openings, prices, insurance details and licence can be checked. Availability will be reconfirmed every month, and nobody will be able to pay for a higher place.
See the directory promise →Where every row comes from.
State records
- DHCS certified residential mental health programs, FY 2025–26 Q4
- DHCS MHRC and PHF licensing list, September 2026
- CDSS community care licensing file, May 2025 (latest posted)
- DHCS substance use facility list, downloaded 1 Oct 2026
- CDPH healthcare facility listing, 1 Oct 2026
How crisis, transitional and long-term are told apart. The DHCS list labels all three as social rehabilitation programs. We group them by the type letter in each certificate number: S for short-term crisis, T for transitional, L for long-term. DHCS does not publish this key; we checked it against programs whose own descriptions are known. Treat the grouping as our reading of the file, not a state label.
Private teen homes. The CDSS file lists 342 children's group homes but does not say which are treatment programs. We kept the ones run by youth treatment operators we could identify by name, from the file dated May 2025, the latest the state has posted. That list can miss an operator; if a teen treatment home is missing, tell us. A licence record does not establish age range, fit, quality, safety or an open bed.
STRTPs. A DHCS mental health program approval is not the separate CDSS facility licence. Neither proves age, fit, admission or an open bed. For a named program, use the exact-record check.
Mental health houses without a DHCS row. 33 houses hold a Social Services social rehabilitation licence that we could not match to a DHCS certification, by name and city. Their programme type is not stated in either file.
Developmental disability homes. From the Social Services licensing file (May 2025). Children's home addresses are withheld by the state.
Substance use hospitals. Chemical dependency recovery hospitals from the CDPH facility listing, 1 October 2026.
License dates. 62 substance use rows show an expiration before 1 October 2026 in the state file. They are tagged, not removed, because renewals can lag.
Eating disorders. Licensed by CDPH as congregate living health facilities. The state file does not say which homes treat eating disorders, so we matched names and street addresses to operators' published residential sites, checked 1 October 2026. One operator-listed site was not found in the CDPH file and is flagged.
What a row can prove. That the state listed a named program, its operator, city and capacity in a dated file. It cannot prove quality, safety, fit, payment, admission or an open bed. Inclusion is computed from those files and is never purchased.
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Review hold. Clinical review and California access and legal review are pending. No review badge is claimed.