13 Targeted Mental Health Clinics Win Court Reprieve

Attorneys representing indigent, mentally ill patients won a court victory Thursday that temporarily blocks the planned closures or curtailment of mental health services at 13 Los Angeles County outpatient clinics.

Patients and workers at mental health clinics from the San Fernando Valley to San Pedro received the sudden reprieve after Superior Court Judge Robert I. Weil granted a temporary restraining order barring the county from moving ahead with the planned cutbacks.

The Department of Mental Health, faced with more than $16 million in budget cuts, had targeted six clinics that would close their doors by the end of the month and seven that would have their services slashed because of fund shortages.

Three of those clinics, including two in the South Bay and one in South-Central Los Angeles, had been scheduled to shut their doors after today.

Hearing on Aug. 29

But Weil said he was persuaded that the cutbacks, which would affect about 20,000 mental health patients, should be temporarily shelved until a court hearing can be held Aug. 29 on whether the county should fully restore the cuts.

While sympathizing with the county’s financial bind, the judge said the monetary loss paled in comparison to the devastating impact of the reduced mental health services.

“There is no question that there will be an increased cost of police and law enforcement services, increased domestic violence and criminal activities and increased demands on other parts of the county” if the clinics were to close, Weil said.

In ruling against the county, Weil sided with lawyers from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the Western Center on Law and Poverty Inc., the San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services Inc. and the Legal Services Program for Pasadena and San Gabriel-Pomona Valleys who had filed the class-action complaint on behalf of indigent patients.

The attorneys blamed the state and the county for failing to fund mental health programs in Los Angeles adequately and said they were happy with the ruling.

“This will prevent harm to people. All we wanted was for the judge to freeze the status quo so we can have a hearing on the cuts,” said Melinda Bird, an attorney for the Western Center.

Patient ‘Was Scared’

Although the clinics are used by both low- and middle-income patients, the legal complaint was filed on behalf of six indigent patients who contend that they cannot afford private treatment.

After the court ruling, one of the plaintiffs--Glenn Comer, a 35-year-old patient at the West San Fernando Valley Mental Health Service clinic--said he was relieved.

“I was scared. It means I’m going to sleep tonight,” said Comer, who has been receiving treatment for major depression and suicidal tendencies and who said he would have to be hospitalized if his clinic were closed.

Some patients at three clinics scheduled to close first--the Wilmington Mental Health Center, the San Pedro Mental Health Center and the outpatient clinic at the Hubert H. Humphrey Comprehensive Health Center--had already been notified to go to other clinics to receive medication. But county officials said they will now postpone any such actions until after the court hearing.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that, under state law, a special public hearing is required before the county can go ahead with the proposed mental health cuts.

But county officials insist that they have met all the legal requirements, and Roberta Fesler, assistant county counsel, said the delay in implementing the planned reductions will only mean deeper cuts if they are ultimately upheld by the courts.

Fesler said a monthlong delay in imposing the full cuts could cost the county another $1.5 million and more mental health jobs.

“It’s definitely going to be a hardship,” she said.

Only hours before the court hearing, critics of the mental health cuts staged a rally in Carson aimed at building public opposition to the reductions. About 200 patients, family members, mental health advocates and workers gathered at the Coastal Mental Health Clinic--one of the targeted clinics--and chanted, “Save Our Clinic,” as speakers railed against the cuts.

The sea of protest signs included one hand-lettered placard with the words: “Cutting Mental Health is Crazy.”