Case Study // RUHS Resilience Hub

Behavioral health facilities exist to support people during some of life’s most vulnerable moments. But what happens when the systems and facilities that enable that care are themselves disrupted?

For Riverside University Health System’s (RUHS) Wellness Village, that question became central to the design process. The project team recognized that climate-related risks—including prolonged extreme heat, utility disruptions, and Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS)—could have an outsized impact on the campus’ residents, many of whom are living with mental illness, substance use disorders, housing instability, or other complex health needs. Without reliable access to cooling, communication, food services, or essential support systems, a temporary disruption could quickly become a health and safety concern.

How could continuity of care be maintained? The answer became a resilience hub embedded within the heart of the campus—a place designed not only to support everyday wellness, but also to provide safety, comfort, and connection when residents need it most.

A Village Designed Around Healing

The RUHS Wellness Village was envisioned as more than a healthcare campus. Situated on approximately 13 acres in Mead Valley, California, the 440,000-square-foot development brings together behavioral health services, physical healthcare, supportive housing, education, and community amenities within a single integrated environment designed to support dignity, wellness, and recovery.

By removing barriers between healthcare, housing, and social services, the campus enables participants to access the support they need throughout every stage of recovery—from crisis stabilization and treatment to supportive housing and long-term independence. This philosophy of completeness ultimately informed the campus approach to resilience, as well.

Understanding Vulnerability

The team’s resilience strategy began with understanding how climate-related disruptions uniquely affect behavioral health populations. Research has shown that extreme heat can increase stress on the body, draining one’s emotional resources and increasing impulsive behavior. During heat waves, emergency room visits, suicides, aggression and violence have all been shown to increase. Additional factors apply to those navigating challenges with mental well-being. Many behavioral health medications can impair the body’s ability to regulate temperature or require dosing changes during heat stress, making cooling and hydration especially critical to prolonged heat events.

In addition to heat exposure, power outages represented an equally significant challenge, affecting daily routines, communication, medication and food safety, and critical support services. A careful look at the program confirmed that a large percentage of participants and staff would be without electricity during these events. Affected individuals would include the residents of the four-story Supportive and Transitional Housing Building, the hundreds of daily outpatients visiting the Community Wellness and Education Center, and the staff who serve them. The team recognized that maintaining continuity of care would require more than meeting minimum code requirements. It would necessitate a campus designed to support people through extended disruptions.

A Village-Based Resilience Hub

As the team evaluated resilience strategies, a compelling opportunity emerged.

Planned as the social and programmatic heart of the campus, the Community Wellness and Education Center would provide the venue where residents of Supportive and Transitional Housing would gather for meals, education, wellness programming, and social connection. Maintaining key functions here would allow the campus to continue providing essential services in a familiar, trusted setting. The first floor alone could serve this purpose. Open seven days a week, it includes reception, a commercial kitchen, dining, gathering spaces, quiet lounges, public restrooms, and administrative and security offices, as well as a pet kennel, pharmacy, library, and market.

Executing the Vision

Creating a resilience hub required balancing performance, functionality, and cost. Rather than expanding emergency power throughout the entire building, the design team focused resources where they would have the greatest impact. A fine-tuned resilience strategy was developed through a comprehensive assessment of which spaces, systems, and functions would provide the greatest benefit during an outage.

To reduce emergency power demand while preserving critical functionality, the mechanical engineering team separated the first-floor mechanical systems from the upper floors, allowing the ground floor to remain conditioned during a power outage while significantly reducing the size and cost of the emergency power system.  

The electrical design required a more intricate process, as emergency power had to be budgeted based on the remaining load capacity of the added 600 kW emergency generator after first floor cooling was taken into account. Every outlet, light fixture, appliance, and system was reviewed individually, and a roadmap developed indicating exactly what would remain operational when utility power was unavailable. Due to the small number of inpatients in the Children and Youth Services Building, a concept emerged to eliminate the food service kitchen from that building entirely and serve those inpatients daily from the Resilience Hub, helping to offset some of the additional costs.

Reliable communication was equally important. The technology infrastructure was designed with multiple connections in the street to be able to maintain internet, phones, and emergency services communications during times of disruption.

The result: a resilience hub that provides a safe, conditioned, and fully functional gathering place during emergencies. Residents can access cooling, drinking water, meals, medication storage, device charging, and social support. Staff can continue delivering services, maintaining communication and calm, and supporting continuity of care. What might appear to be simple amenities become essential lifelines during an emergency.

Resilience as an Extension of Care

The most powerful aspect of the Wellness Village Resilience Hub is that it is woven into the daily life of the campus. On a typical day, the Community Wellness & Education Center provides outpatient care, food, education, recreation, and opportunities for connection. During an emergency, those same spaces become a refuge where residents, visitors and staff can access comfort, safety, and support. Resilience is not treated as a separate function. It is embedded within the care environment itself.

The RUHS Wellness Village demonstrates how behavioral health campuses can move beyond traditional planning and create environments that support recovery under both normal and disrupted conditions. By integrating resilience into the fabric of everyday care, the project helps ensure that everyone on campus can remain connected, supported, and safe, regardless of the challenges they face.