New Napa Mentis wellness campus debuts while facing federal funding cuts

Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on February 25th, 2025.

A grove of mature redwood trees surrounds the new Mentis Wellness Campus in central Napa, almost as if wrapping “arms” of protection, comfort and privacy around visitors.

It’s a sense of protection that the nonprofit itself also needs as it faces threats of significant federal funding cuts.

The new centralized hub offering a full scope of mental health resources, including both preventive wellness programs and mental health treatment, officially opened its doors in central Napa on Jan. 13.

Located at 1272 Hayes St., the Mentis Wellness Campus “represents an innovative new vision for community-based mental health, allowing the agency to expand its broad scope of services to reach more community members,” Mentis said in a news release.

On March 5 at 3 p.m., Mentis will host an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $14 million project.

With 13,000 square feet of space — over 10,000 more than at the former Mentis offices — the new Wellness Campus will allow the agency “to house all staff under one roof, expand its bilingual programming for and offer community art and wellness spaces,” said a news release. Mentis was formerly headquartered at 709 Franklin St. in Napa.

During a tour on Tuesday, staff members debuted the spaces and features of the new campus.

“What we are trying to do is offer the community is a very comprehensive approach to community-based mental health,” said Charlotte Hajer, development director. It’s an approach “that tries to center inclusion and equitable access, as well as a very client-centered approach and a full scope of services that is very prevention-driven.”

The new campus includes private therapy rooms, community space for therapy, yoga, meditation, wellness workshops, private therapy and case management for youth to older adults, an art studio and outdoor space for sports and movement activities, mindfulness and self-care practices, and room for a community garden.

“We want to put people at ease as soon as they set foot on this campus,” she said.

All of that could be severely impacted by cuts in funding from the federal government.

“There is significant concern that any significant reduction in funding coming from the federal government will have a dramatic impact on what the state then has available to fund counties and school districts … that will result in reductions to both at the local level and nonprofits like Mentis,” said Rob Weiss, executive director at Mentis.

“To what extent … is unknown at this point,” he said. “But it’s safe to say that states, counties, districts and nonprofits are bracing for substantial change stemming from reductions at the federal level.”

“Which all happens at the same time that we’re anticipating an increased need in mental health care services,” added Hajer. “This campus was designed to meet that growing need and to be able to step up in our capacity and serve at every single level, and we’re really excited about that promise. We’ll just have to get more creative about finding new funding sources to realize that promise.”

That’s the key point, said Weiss. Demand for mental health care and wellness services continues to rise.

“It’s urgent,” he said. “And we will have to find ways to continue to generate revenue to provide services, knowing that government funding is going to go down.”

Weiss said that for the staff at Mentis, “it’s personally challenging to reconcile the beautiful campus that we have, knowing the need is profound, knowing we can go deeper in responding to that need. But we’re having to grapple with unexpected and chaotic changes at the federal level that don’t seem to be strategic and without regard to how those decisions ripple out to the states and to local communities.”