Mental Services in Peril; County Blames State Cuts

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, responding to hundreds of the mentally ill and their supporters who packed its hearing room, bitterly complained on Monday that the board is being forced to dismantle the county’s mental health system because of the new state budget.

“This would leave our mental health system in ruins,” Supervisor Ed Edelman predicted on Monday. “We would really not have a mental health system.”

During the first day of the board’s budget deliberations, the supervisors came up with no solutions to save the network, which was threatened when Gov. George Deukmejian made massive cuts in county mental health funds in the state budget.

Richard Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer, recommended that the supervisors add $7 million to the mental health department budget, but that would still leave the department with a $39-million deficit in its more than $100-million budget.

Even under that scenario, many county clinics would be forced to close and tens of thousands of people would go untreated.

Some of the impact of the cutbacks was revealed when Roberto Quiroz, director of the mental health department, released a detailed list of private mental health agencies whose public funding would be reduced.

Mental health advocates predicted that dozens of these agencies will close, causing a loss of care for the homeless, abused children and the chronically mentally ill.

“I don’t believe this,” said Richard Van Horn, chief executive officer of the Mental Health Assn. of Los Angeles County, after he had scanned the list. “This is total craziness. You are basically taking the entire mental health system and saying to hell with it.”

After the meeting, agency heads huddled around a copy of the list to see how they fared.

“Oh my God!” exclaimed Gladys C. Lee, director of the Asian Pacific Family Center in Rosemead, when she read that her agency was being cut by $616,266. “This will close our program.”

A colleague hugged Lee as she started to cry. The center serves up to 600 Asian families living in 33 cities in the San Gabriel Valley. The patients, many of whom are schizophrenic, suicidal or deeply depressed, largely speak no English and have no where else to go, Lee said.

The board resumes deliberations on the $10.3-billion county budget this afternoon. If they are to find additional funds for mental health needs, the supervisors must balance a host of competing demands from health, criminal justice and welfare agencies. The board is expected to approve the budget for the 1990 fiscal year this week.

While mental health has been hit the hardest, other departments, most notably, Health Services, also are facing significant cuts. But the gloomy picture that Health Service officials painted last week now appears brighter than it was, Dixon said.

Last week, the Department of Health Services faced an $81.8-million deficit that would have removed hundreds of beds from the county’s already overcrowded hospitals. But county officials are now recommending that the supervisors spend $66.2 million more on Health Services, leaving a deficit of $15.6 million.

The extra money would come from a variety of new fees the county may now charge, as well as the expected proceeds from one of two initiatives on the November ballot that would increase the tax on liquor, wine and beer.

Still, Health Director Robert Gates said a proposed cut of $15.6 million would mean more delays for patients, who already wait up to four months for appointments at the county’s public health centers and hospitals. Overall, the system will have to cut back patient visits by about 10%, Gates said.

Although it is far outstripped by spending requests, the supervisors will begin their final round of budget discussions with a $23.7-million pot of uncommitted funds.

The county budget would grow 5.3% overall and includes funds for 100 new sheriff’s deputies, 11 new fire stations in fast-growing areas, land for new courthouses and funds to increase community library staffs and facilities.