Mental Health May Get Extra $6 Million : Officials Still Angry as County Stays Below State Funding Average

San Diego County’s overburdened mental health programs could receive an extra $6 million next year under a proposal put together by state legislators during the waning days of their budget deliberations.

But the money--part of a $75-million legislative package to bolster mental health programs throughout the state--still leaves the county below the state average for funding to care for psychotics and schizophrenics, a fact that continues to anger San Diego officials.

“I think it is absurd and disgusting,” County Supervisor Susan Golding said Wednesday about the continuing disparities in state funding that leave San Diego in the bottom third of funding, behind other counties including Los Angeles, Marin, San Francisco and Santa Clara.

‘Should Not Be Treated Like Fourth-Class Citizens’

“Any additional funds, on top of what we are already receiving, are welcome and critically needed,” she said. “But at some point, the state Legislature has got to realize that San Diego County is the second-largest in the entire state and the people who live here should not be treated like fourth-class citizens.”

The county’s basic allocation for the coming year is $42.6 million.

Historic inequities in the way mental health funds are disbursed prompted the county to file two lawsuits against the state since 1986. In March, 1988, the county won a preliminary injunction in one of the cases that forced the state to increase the number of psychiatric hospital beds from 32 to 71.

That legal victory has encouraged Orange and Fresno counties to file similar lawsuits, and a hearing is scheduled today in San Diego County Superior Court to see if the cases should be consolidated, said Terence Dutton an attorney for San Diego County.

Meanwhile, the protests and legal maneuvers from San Diego and Orange counties have reverberated all the way to Sacramento, where lawmakers decided this year to bolster a mental health budget that virtually everyone agrees has been neglected.

In addition to the $760 million set aside as part of the regular budget for the state’s Department of Mental Health, the Legislature decided to throw in an extra $75 million taken from its general fund and tobacco tax increases made possible by the passage of Proposition 99 last year.

Department Has Lost Financial Ground

Not only was the money intended to help a department that has lost financial ground since the early 1980s when the state’s population began to burgeon, but it was also supposed to be targeted for counties like San Diego that have been chronically underfunded in the past.

One plan, approved by the state Senate and endorsed by the Conference of Local Mental Health Directors, would have plowed at least 50% of the money into underfunded counties. For instance, San Diego County would have received $9.6 million and Orange County $6.2 million.

But the plan looked appreciably different once it emerged from a legislative conference committee, which includes Assemblywoman Maxine Waters and state Sen. Al Robbins-- both powerful Los Angeles Democrats.

San Diego had been cut to $6 million in new money, which, when combined with its basic mental health funds, would translate into $23.03 per person. That figure is adjusted for the number of people living below the poverty level in the county, and is far below the state average of $29.80.

In comparison, the proposal would give Los Angeles $22.4 million, or $32.41 per person. At the top of the list is Marin County, which would receive $66.27 per person under the legislative compromise.

To Go Before Senate

The mental health budget will go before the Senate today where it is expected to be approved, and then be sent to Gov. George Deukmejian for final consideration. Officials from the underfunded counties hope that the governor will use his veto power to redistribute the funds in their favor.

Meanwhile, San Diego officials are openly disappointed about the fact that they are still lagging in funds for the mentally ill.

Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-La Mesa) complained during debate on the state budget Wednesday that San Diego and other underfunded counties “find themselves once again sending their tax money out of their counties” to support mental health programs in places like Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties, which “continue to suck the well dry.”

Marin Funds Questioned

In San Diego, Golding said she found it interesting that affluent Marin County is the highest in per capita funding for the mentally ill, who include many street people.

“I would wager that the homeless problem is greater in San Diego County than in Marin,” she said.

Areta Crowell, San Diego County’s mental health director, said that the legislative proposal, if finalized, would still leave the county “far behind” other places in the state.

“There are literally thousands of people in San Diego that we know suffer from serious mental illness,” said Crowell. “As far as we can tell, many of those people don’t get service. . . .

Suicide Risk

“We run the risk of higher suicide and disability rates because we don’t have the services that would help people,” she added. “We have some, but we can’t do all the things we wish we could do.”

Yet Crowell emphasized that, despite its misgivings about overall equity, San Diego County would still be happy to receive the extra $6 million if the legislative compromise is approved.

The money would go toward opening a 13-bed ward in the county’s new psychiatric hospital, as well as restoring some residential treatment programs, she said.