Cuts May Cripple Some Social Service Programs

San Gabriel Valley agencies could lose up to $13 million in mental health care and children’s services money under state budget cuts imposed last week by Gov. George Deukmejian, social service providers say.

Among the programs cut by Deukmejian is a YWCA-run child abuse prevention program that has counseled 14,000 schoolchildren annually in South Pasadena, Pasadena and San Marino for the past five years.

The Covina office of the County Department of Children’s Services and the county-run Arcadia Mental Health Clinic, whose services were significantly reduced last year, also face cuts when the County Board of Supervisors meets this week to pass along the state cuts in the county’s budget.

At least five nonprofit mental health care agencies also face county pass-along cuts, including three of the largest: Foothill Community Mental Health in Glendora, La Puente Valley Mental Health Center in La Puente and Pacific Clinics, which operates in four San Gabriel Valley cities.

The budget reductions mean that abused children, isolated and depressed seniors and the homeless mentally ill will have nowhere to turn for help, said Susan Mandel, president of Pacific Clinics. “Some of those folks are just going to plain die,” she said.

“What’s going to be left in this stripped down system is people in hospitals or crisis management centers,” said Ted Meyers, director of Foothill Community Mental Health. “Unless (the supervisors) make a change in direction, they’re going to cut outpatient mental health care. I’ll be surprised if we’ll be here in two months.”

Agencies throughout the state are reeling under cuts in four separate categories that Deukmejian blue-penciled into a $55.7-billion state budget signed Tuesday.

For Los Angeles County, those cuts amount to $10.1 million in child abuse prevention funds from the state Child Abuse Prevention Training Act, $21.3 million in mental health funds, $12 million in juvenile justice program money and $11 million in child welfare services.

In the San Gabriel Valley, those cuts make up the bulk of money provided for children’s mental health services contracted out to various nonprofit agencies, said Deborah Hamilton, San Gabriel Valley regional director of the Mental Health Assn.

“There are more children out in the bedroom communities than in downtown Los Angeles,” Hamilton said.

Francis Dowling, assistant chief of the county Department of Mental Health, said cuts are expected this week in the budgets of virtually all agencies, with reductions in funding ranging from 10% to 100%.

For Casitas Pacificas, an El Monte residential care center for 36 mentally ill patients, the cuts could mean the closing of the 9-year-old home and of a Baldwin Park vocational training school attended by many of its patients, said Richard Guajardo, executive director.

Guajardo said he is trying to find agencies or homes to refer his clients to in anticipation of the budget cuts, but many of the alternatives also face cuts. “There just doesn’t seem to be any place to refer them,” he said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Mandel said many agencies are hoping for a legislative override of the governor’s actions. Otherwise, she said, many of the patients being seen by the various agencies will turn to the streets. “There’s no place for these people to go,” she said. “It’s not like they can go down the street to a private doctor.”

Many of the patients are indigent, with long histories of stays in state mental hospitals, Mandel said. They are severely mentally ill with schizophrenia or manic-depressive disorders and need supervision and drugs to maintain themselves.

“They are the kind of folks that if they don’t get their medication, they hear voices telling them they are worthless and to kill themselves,” Mandel said.

She added that the governor’s actions appear to be withdrawing the state from mental health care, a state government responsibility since the Civil War.

Although many of the agencies are nonprofit with other funding, Meyers said that nonprofits cannot operate without a base of government funding.

Whereas some San Gabriel agencies are waiting to see how much they will be cut by the county supervisors, operators of the child abuse prevention program run by the YWCA Pasadena Foothill Valley branch already know they won’t be getting any money.

The program was funded directly by the state, said community outreach coordinator Norma Navarro. Children from 4 to 18 were counseled to prevent physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as neglect and abduction.

The program was probably cut because no statistics exist to prove its effectiveness, Navarro said.

“Some intervention programs were funded, but that occurs after the fact, after the child has been abused,” Navarro said. “Prevention is the key.”TARGETS OF BUDGET CUTS

Some San Gabriel Valley agencies facing funding cuts:

* Casitas Pacificas, El Monte, provides housing and counseling for 36 mentally ill patients with $406,089 annually in state mental health funds.

* Foothill Community Mental Health, Glendora, provides outpatient counseling to 1,000 mentally ill clients, from children to seniors, with $560,000 in state mental health money.

* Inter Community Alternative Network (ICAN), Pasadena, maintains a caseload of 95 chronically mentally ill patients weekly with $360,000 in state mental health funds.

* La Puente Valley Mental Health Center, La Puente, provides outpatient counseling to 1,500 chronically mentally ill patients annually with about $1.5 million in state mental health funds.

* Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services, Covina, provides counseling and evaluation services for about 8,000 children annually.

* Pacific Clinics in Pasadena, Duarte, Rosemead and Irwindale, counsel 2,000 abused children, senior citizens and mentally ill adults each year with $4 million annually in state mental health funds.

* Structured Transitional Employment Programs (STEP), Baldwin Park, provides job training for 55 mentally ill clients annually with $178,356 in state mental health funds.

* YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley, Pasadena, presents child abuse awareness and prevention programs to 14,000 schoolchildren annually in Pasadena, South Pasadena and San Marino with $70,000 in state funds.