State Officials Being Pressed for More Mental Health Aid

A coalition of psychiatrists, mental health service agencies and their clients launched a campaign Friday to pressure state officials to increase spending on mental health services for the estimated 512,000 Californians said to be in need of help.

Charging that public spending for mental health services in California falls far below the national average, the group vowed by summer to lobby every state legislator and the governor for a $228.5-million hike in the $900-million mental health budget.

“Our mental health budget is simply a major catastrophe,” said Dr. Mel Mandel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and past president of the Southern California Psychiatric Society. “It’s shamefully under-funded. We have been tolerating the situation for too long.”

The coalition, representing the major mental health groups in Los Angeles County, unveiled its plans at an often raucous rally in Santa Monica. Attended by about 500 patients, relatives and mental-health professionals, it resembled, at times, a revival meeting.

Patients Testify

Patients stood up and testified to their experiences in the mental health system--shuffled from hospital to clinic to agency, unable to get help, they said. One man recalled 14 hospitalizations; each time, he was discharged on drugs and left to fend for himself.

“We have many people, like me . . . who are put on drugs and we’re simply let out,” said Sam Kline. “This has to stop. Because if I’m ever to be a worthwhile person, working and participating in the community, there has to be some follow-up.”

Parents and mental health workers told similar stories.

“I see the mental health system in Los Angeles County as almost like the Titanic,” said Dr. Richard Mendoza, who runs the psychiatric emergency room at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he said it is common to have 12 to 14 patients waiting without beds up to 36 hours for admission.

“What we in the psychiatric emergency rooms feel like often is one of the four lifeboats that are out there,” Mendoza said. “And there are a sea of ravaged, psychologically impacted and impoverished individuals out there.”

Budgets Compared

The coalition compared California’s nearly $1-billion mental health budget to the $1.9-billion budget in New York, a state with 6 million fewer people. They charged that California’s per capita spending this year is $34.47, compared to a national average calculated by the federal National Institute on Mental Health at $52.43.

Those figures were disputed later by Dean R. Owen, a spokesman for the state Department of Mental Health. In a telephone interview, he said the National Assn. of Mental Health Program Directors puts the national average at $34.70 and California’s spending at $33.51.

Owens contended that comparing California to New York is “comparing apples and halibut.” He said New York spends the bulk of its budget on 33 state mental hospitals treating 22,000 people, while California has only five state hospitals treating 5,000 patients.

“California is really the only large state in the nation to put the majority of its financial resources into local programs as opposed to state hospitals,” said Owen, acknowledging that the California system could benefit nevertheless from more funds.

“We would all love to have more money for mental health, there’s no question,” he said. “But when you’re faced with priorities and the need for funding education, toxic waste cleanup efforts and public safety, mental health does fairly well.”