County Mental Health System Focus of Report

County health officials on Friday released a ponderous inventory of the county’s mental health system--a document intended to serve as the groundwork for an informed public discussion of the embattled system’s successes and failings.

The 213-page draft report represents the first phase of an estimated $100,000 independent study of the sprawling network of services. The two-part review was mandated last spring by the county Board of Supervisors.

“What we have now is a statement that we hope is a description of the whole,” Kathleen Armogida, a deputy director of the county Department of Health Services, said Friday, announcing the report’s release. “And we are beginning a process of dialogue.”

The volume, available from the county’s Mental Health Advisory Board office, is to be reviewed by the system’s five regional planning committees, advocacy groups for the mentally ill, politicians, health department employees and the general public.

Comments Welcome

Comments are being solicited by Barbara Ford, a specialist in public health systems hired by the department to manage the project. People wishing to comment may meet with Ford. Final testimony also will be taken at the advisory board meeting Jan. 13, Armogida said.

After that, Ford and her staff intend to prepare a second volume of recommendations for changes in the system. Those will be presented to the department’s director, Dr. J. William Cox, and to the board of supervisors.

“I think it’s really important to remember that this is a no-blame process,” Armogida said of the analysis of the system, which has come under fire in recent years from federal and state officials, and most recently from the county Medical Society.

“I think this can be a tremendously exciting experience,” Armogida said. “Everybody is anxious. Staff are anxious . . . various community groups are anxious. . . . I hope that we can get past that and that people’s anxieties and fears don’t get in the way.”

The report made available Friday is a kind of compilation and summary of the statutes and policies that have governed the mental health system as well as its history, services, resources, revenue, clients and key players.

Armogida and Ford said such a study was needed because people differ widely in describing the system and how it should function. Armogida likened the experience of listening to the diverse accounts to the experience of listening to six blind men describing an elephant.

“We have said, ‘We think this is the basis on which we can have a discussion,’ ” she said of the report. “ ‘Please talk to us.’ ”