Attorney Calls Mental-Health Cut in Question

San Diego County may have ignored procedural steps required before imposing the massive mental health cuts planned for July 1, a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of San Diego said Thursday.

“It looks like they may have to provide 30-day notice and a public hearing before they can make these cuts,” said the attorney, Rosemary Bishop. “I know they’re having budget hearings, but I’m not sure that is sufficient.”

The county announced June 3 that it is cutting $7.5 million out of its spending for low-cost outpatient mental health services. The move would end treatment for about 5,000 of the 11,000 seriously mentally ill people who now receive drugs, counseling and other services that make it possible for them to live in the community despite their illness. Outpatient clinics would largely be reduced to dispensing drugs to the remaining patients.

Critics and officials predict the proposal would increase the number of mentally ill homeless people and swell the numbers of people competing for the county’s few psychiatric hospital beds. Critics add that the county also is likely to see an increase in suicides and, possibly, violence by out-of-control mentally ill patients.

Preliminary Research

Bishop emphasized that her opinion is based on preliminary research. She said she will continue to pursue the matter at the request of the local Welfare Rights Organization, which is concerned about the proposed budget cuts.

Tony Albers, chief deputy county counsel, said he could not comment on the procedural adequacy of the county’s budget-cutting plan for mental health without studying the issue. No one has asked for a county counsel opinion on the matter, he said.

Besides the requirement for 30 days’ notice and a public hearing, Bishop said, state law also appears to require official notice to mental health clients about the cuts.

“One thing the county has to do is post notices in all their health facilities explaining all the cuts that are going to be made. So, from that point, it’s unlikely that the county will have met the letter of the law,” she said.

Notices Still Not Posted

The budget cuts that would take effect July 1 weren’t announced publicly until June 3, and notices still have not been posted in mental health clinics.

Even if Bishop’s suspicions about technical violations prove correct, legal action based on them could be expected to delay the budget cuts only temporarily.

In the meantime, mental health advocates and the mentally ill themselves are planning to turn out en masse Tuesday afternoon at a Board of Supervisors hearing on the proposed cuts. The hearing will be from 2 to 5 p.m. in the supervisors’ hearing room on the third floor of the County Administration Building, 1600 Pacific Highway.