BHSME serves as an owner’s advisor for behavioral health facility projects, supporting clients as they navigate funding strategy, planning, permitting, construction oversight, and operational requirements. Our role is to represent owner interests across each phase of delivery, helping ensure that decisions remain aligned with funding obligations, regulatory expectations, and long-term operational realities.
We bring deep experience working within complex public funding environments, including state and local grant programs, helping owners identify viable funding pathways, understand program requirements, and position projects for successful award and compliance. We work alongside owners and project teams to clarify goals, constraints, and risk factors, coordinating with architects, engineers, contractors, and agency stakeholders while maintaining a clear owner-side perspective that supports accountability, transparency, and confident decision-making.
Behavioral health facilities must balance clinical needs, operational realities, and regulatory requirements. As an owner’s advisor, BHSME helps clients navigate design decision-making by translating care models, staffing needs, safety considerations, and funding requirements into clear priorities for project teams.
We work alongside architects, engineers, and clinical stakeholders to ensure design decisions remain aligned with program goals, compliance standards, and long-term operations. By advising on evidence-informed planning considerations such as space flexibility, daylighting, acoustics, and circulation, we help owners evaluate tradeoffs and manage risk while supporting environments that function well in practice.
Behavioral health projects often face their greatest risk at the transitions between phases. As an owner’s advisor, BHSME helps maintain alignment across the full project lifecycle, supporting informed decision-making and anticipating issues before they escalate.
We provide owner-side guidance across:
Early planning and funding alignment
Entitlement and permitting coordination
Construction-phase oversight and risk monitoring
Post-award compliance, reporting, and audit readiness
This lifecycle perspective helps owners keep projects aligned with funding obligations, regulatory requirements, and delivery timelines while reducing avoidable disruption.
Brian B. Jones, CEO, MBA, MA, PMP, is an owner’s advisor and real estate development specialist with over 20 years of experience delivering behavioral health facilities from concept to ribbon cutting. He is the founder and CEO of BHSME, LLC, and author of The Wellspring, a guide to best practices in behavioral health infrastructure. Brian has led more than $1.5 Billion+ in DHCS-funded projects and is known for audit-clean compliance, 30–40% cost savings, and expert coordination across complex, multi-stakeholder healthcare developments.
Over 20 years delivering behavioral health infrastructure on time and within budget
Dual M.S. degrees (Stanford University and University of Colorado Boulder)
Founder & CEO, BHSME; $1.5 Billion+ in DHCS BHCIP and CCE projects; audit-clean compliance
BHSME’s perspective is shaped by direct, hands-on experience inside public funding and regulatory environments. That experience guides how we advise clients across the full project lifecycle, from early planning through construction and into long-term operations. We understand how funding programs are structured, how oversight is applied, and where projects most often encounter risk after awards are made.
Post-award compliance is one of the most critical and least understood phases of grant-funded behavioral health development. Requirements extend well beyond construction, and gaps in reporting, audits, or coordination can jeopardize funding integrity. BHSME supports clients through these obligations with a focus on documentation, alignment across teams, and early preparation, allowing providers and development teams to stay focused on care delivery while meeting oversight requirements with confidence.
BHSME approaches partnership through the lens of accountability. As an owner’s advisor, we work closely with clients to represent their interests, support informed decision-making, and maintain clarity as projects move through complex funding, regulatory, and delivery environments. Our role is to provide an independent, owner-side perspective that helps balance competing priorities while keeping projects aligned with stated goals and obligations.
We prioritize clear communication, transparency, and coordination across project teams. By aligning closely with owners and their stakeholders, we help ensure decisions remain grounded in project goals, funding requirements, and community needs throughout the lifecycle. This approach reduces misalignment between teams and helps prevent issues that often emerge when accountability is fragmented.
Our support does not end at project completion. We remain engaged as needs evolve, helping owners adapt to changing requirements and sustain long-term success in delivering behavioral health services.
Behavioral health facilities succeed when planning reflects both community needs and project realities.
As an owner’s advisor, BHSME helps clients structure and interpret stakeholder input so community perspectives inform decisions without compromising funding requirements, regulatory compliance, or operational viability.
We support owners in coordinating engagement with service providers, community members, and agency stakeholders, helping translate feedback into actionable guidance for project teams.
This approach strengthens alignment, supports smoother approvals, and reduces friction as projects move forward, particularly in complex public-sector and grant-funded environments.
One of the unique aspects of our approach is our emphasis on community integration. We understand that successful behavioral health facilities must be planned with integration from those who will use them, as well as the communities they serve.
Our team encourages stakeholder engagement sessions to gather insights from service providers, patients, and community members. This ensures that the facilities we develop are not only functional but also reflective of the needs and preferences of the populations they are intended to serve.
In addition to our focus on community integration, BHSME is dedicated to staying at the forefront of industry trends and best practices. We continuously monitor changes in regulations, funding requirements, and emerging models of care. This allows us to provide our clients with the most relevant and up-to-date information, enabling them to make informed decisions that align with their goals.
Our subject matter expertise thought leadership is a testament to our commitment to excellence and our desire to contribute to the ongoing evolution of the behavioral health landscape.