Judge Accepts County Plan to Ease Welfare Process for the Mentally Ill

A Superior Court judge on Friday approved Los Angeles County’s plan to help the mentally disabled apply for welfare, calling it “a great start” toward helping the thousands of homeless citizens who may be unable to help themselves.

“I think the county ought to be congratulated on its good faith in getting started on this,” Judge John Cole said of the plan, which several poverty groups said does not go far enough to help those with mental disabilities who may be confused and intimidated by the welfare application process.

Under the plan, prepared in response to an Aug. 8 court order, the county will train 840 general relief workers in how to identify and assist clients with mental disabilities and will station mental health workers at nearly all of the county’s welfare offices.

Attorneys for the Center for Law and the Public Interest and six other legal aid firms complained that the county’s plan, scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, “adds little to existing programs and does absolutely nothing to eliminate the bureaucratic red tape that so pervades the application process.”

“As such,” the groups said in court papers, “it offers little hope for the county’s mentally disabled residents now living in the streets without subsistance benefits essential to their health and survival.”

But Cole disagreed, calling the groups’ suggestion for more personalized screening and assistance “impractical.”

‘Not a Psychiatrist’s Office’

“In the best of all possible worlds, maybe we could do that. But this is not ‘Candide,’ and we are not able to do that in that fashion. . . . The Department of Public Social Services is not a psychiatrist’s office,” he said.

“I think the county has responded rather nobly,” the judge added. “There may be some warts and pimples in their plan that need to be removed, but by and large I think they’re doing their best.”

Because the county appears to be voluntarily complying, Cole said, he declined to issue an injunction requiring the county to take any specific steps to implement the plan, although he retained jurisdiction on the issue in case problems develop later.

Mary Wawro, an assistant county counsel, said the plan “will be able to help the people it’s supposed to help.”

She said the key feature of the plan is an expansion of the county’s demonstration project designed to help the homeless mentally ill in Skid Row into other areas of the county, providing mental health professionals and other assistance to those who need it.

Although the welfare application process may not be greatly simplified, she said, the plan calls for deferring many of the most complicated application procedures for those unable to complete them and providing help in filling out forms to anyone who appears to need it.

About one-third of the county’s homeless are thought to be mentally ill.