Mental Health Funds Battle

I am concerned that The Times article (Aug. 26), “Mental Health Chief in Battle Over Spending of State Funds,” does not properly present the facts regarding the planning for mental health services at the Olive View Medical Center Replacement Facility.

The article implies that the planning for added mental health beds at Olive View has been based on politics, involving the current county director of mental health, Roberto Quiroz, and Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, rather than upon need. A review of the record shows this implication to be entirely incorrect.

Olive View Medical Center has operated an extensive mental health treatment program for more than 20 years. The Olive View Hospital facility destroyed in the 1971 earthquake operated 150 mental health beds. Since the earthquake, Olive View has been able to operate only 52 mental health beds due to lack of space. The first phase of construction for the replacement facility containing 80 mental health beds began in 1977 and was completed in 1979, more than one year before Supervisor Antonovich was first elected and more than five years before Quiroz assumed his present position. Further, the 1978-79 County Mental Health Plan included funding for the 80 mental health beds at Olive View as a plan priority.

In recommending funding for the additional beds at Olive View, Quiroz has in fact been doing nothing more than carrying out a longstanding county plan originally adopted by a previous Board of Supervisors to restore much needed mental health services lost in the 1971 earthquake. I believe he has continued to carry out this plan because the ongoing mental health planning process--which includes extensive input by professionals, consumers, and the public at large--continues to reveal a strong need for additional acute hospital treatment.

In fact, because of the urgent need for more acute hospital care throughout the county, the 1985-86 county budget just adopted by the Board of Supervisors, also included increased acute mental health beds in two county hospitals, Harbor/UCLA Medical Center and King/Drew Medical Center, serving other areas of the county.

ROBERT C. GATES

Director of Health Services

Los Angeles County