Social Worker’s Tragic Death
The cynical attitude of the governor, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the majority of do-nothing legislators in Sacramento has struck again. This time, in order to save a few dollars, they allowed Robbyn Panitch to die at the hands of a homeless mentally ill client. They had suspended, for economic reasons, adequate security coverage at the Santa Monica West Mental Health Clinic.
Robbyn was a bright, cheerful and competent psychiatric social worker who had been working in outpatient service for the County Department of Mental Health for the last four years. She was respected and well liked by many in the department, not to mention the patients she served. Her loss diminishes the mental health professions and the human species. We will miss you, Robbyn.
Sacramento and the county government have been playing a grisly game of buck-passing with the mental health program for years. None of them--governor, supervisors, Legislature--has had the wisdom, guts or decency to recognize its importance and fund it adequately. Now they are reaping the harvest.
ROBERT LATHERS
Executive Board Member
Assn. of Clinical Social Workers
Local 2712
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