Countywide

San Diego County began sending out a new pamphlet this week to mental health clients and service providers, marking the final settlement of a lawsuit over cuts in the mental health budget in October, 1988.

The pamphlet lists what services the county will provide and includes detailed grievance procedures clients can use if they feel they have been unfairly denied services.

The grievance procedure was developed to settle the Legal Aid Society of San Diego’s contention that clients were denied due process when $3.2 million was cut from the budget.

The lawsuit’s other key contention, that the county was required to give a minimum level of service to the mentally ill, became moot in February, 1989. Superior Court Judge Robert E. May notified the parties then that an appellate court decision in a similar Los Angeles suit would require him to reject that argument. Since then, attorneys have been negotiating over the due-process issue.