For more than 50 years, we have been "Caring for Our Community" by providing affordable, evidence-based behavioral healthcare services to children, adolescents, adults, seniors and their families who struggle with mental-health and substance-use issues. 

July 2020 saw two organizations with this mission — First Step of Sarasota and Coastal Behavioral Healthcare — join to provide better service more cost-effectively. The leadership and staff of this new, stronger First Step of Sarasota Inc. know that while the job is never done, we succeed every time a family is reunited, a person with a mental illness is well again, or a child threatening suicide is saved.

We celebrate every time an individual achieves his or her self-determined goals for health, life, and well-being.

First Step of Sarasota offers innovative and comprehensive mental health and substance use programs for adults and children, including inpatient, outpatient and telehealth services. If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health or substance use challenges, First Step of Sarasota can help. We offer innovative treatment programs for both children and adults to help them transform their lives and conquer their challenges by providing customized mental health and substance use treatments to our patients.