Mental Health Funds Battle

Ted Vollmer’s suggestion in his article that Robert Quiroz would have been better off if Los Angeles had not received $20 million from the state is a bit disingenuous. The Department of Mental Health, Quiroz, and the more than 100,000 citizens in Los Angeles County with major mental illness are all better off precisely because of the extra money.

However, the “controversy” that Vollmer describes between private mental health organizations and Quiroz personally is to an extent manufactured and misdirected. Reading Vollmer’s article carefully, it seems that Marcia Nay, health deputy to Supervisor Michael Antonovich, encourages the illusion that Quiroz is under Antonovich’s and her control. She says (when asked if she controls Quiroz), “I don’t think so. He doesn’t do everything I want.” She refers to him as “Roberto.” If she was a big lobbyist for Quiroz’s appointment as director of mental health, then she should work to maintain an appropriate distance from him.

She appears to promote controversy and the illusion of power. It is her charge alone that Dr. J. Richard Elpers’ appointment to UCLA and his teaching at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center is somehow improper. It seems hardly an issue large enough for Nay to get involved with. Nay conveys the impression of being heavy-handed, controlling, trite, and petty. Although I’m sure that she is not really so, and has legitimate concerns about mental health in Los Angeles County, the impression still stands. This stance alienates from Supervisor Antonovich’s office many other people legitimately concerned about mental health issues, such that he is thought of as caring only for the San Fernando Valley.

All things considered, it is best for mental health in Los Angeles County, if the chairmanship for the Department of Mental Health would be transferred from Antonovich to another supervisor, and if Nay would assume a much lower public profile.

This would allow Quiroz to deal with, and be responsive to, the needs of various private mental health lobbies, and balance these interests against the urgent need for more acute psychiatric hospital beds (no matter where in Los Angeles they are located). He would be out from under Antonovich’s and his deputy’s considerable shadow, and the illusion of impropriety would be dimmed. Quiroz would be allowed to function freely and to be an effective mental health administrator. Supervisor Antonovich must be held accountable for his deputy’s appearance and actions, just as Quiroz is held responsible for his.

L. SCHNEIDER

Sherman Oaks