Mental Health, Juvenile Services Cuts on Hold

The County Board of Supervisors’ decision Tuesday to hold off on a proposed $39.7-million countywide cutback in mental health services saved about a dozen San Gabriel Valley mental health clinics from immediate closure or severe reductions of service.

The board also held off on imposing $1.94 million in cuts to juvenile programs that would have affected counseling programs at the Boys Club of San Gabriel Valley in El Monte and Boys Republic in Monrovia.

But by tying the future of the county’s mental health budget to passage in November of Proposition 134--the statewide, 5-cent-a-drink alcohol tax initiative--the board created uncertainty in the clinics for the next three months, social service providers said.

“I guess the good news is we have a breather,” said Wayne Soucy, executive vice president of Pacific Clinics, a mental health counseling service that operates in four San Gabriel Valley cities. “It gives us more time for a rational approach to curtailment, if that occurs.”

But Soucy said the uncertain funding “creates tremendous uncertainty in the minds of patients.”

“Literally, it’s bothering all of them,” he said.

San Gabriel Valley clinics that have been given a three-month reprieve include the Almansor Center in South Pasadena, Foothill Community Mental Health in Glendora, La Puente Valley Mental Health Center in La Puente and Mid-Valley Community Mental Health Center in Baldwin Park.

The action taken Tuesday by the supervisors keeps current mental health funding levels in place until Nov. 15. Statewide mental health budget cuts imposed last week by Gov. George Deukmejian, coupled with a county mental health budget deficit of $10 million, would have meant about $8 million in cuts to San Gabriel Valley mental health care providers.

But with about $32 million in mental health funds expected if the alcohol tax initiative passes Nov. 9, the board decided to hold off on mental health cuts until then.

“It’s just a big gamble,” said Ann Stone, associate director of the Los Angeles Mental Health Assn. Stone added that mental health care providers will now turn their efforts to lobbying for passage of the tax measure to save the state’s ailing mental health system. But Soucy said he fears that some ads by the liquor industry against the tax measure “are so negative and so misleading they could sway the public.”

If the measure doesn’t pass, the county will have to impose even greater cuts in November. If that happens, clinics will be hit even harder, Soucy said.

The board’s decision to keep current funding of juvenile programs was similarly tied to state action, said John Farley, division chief of the County Department of Community and Senior Citizen Services.

State legislators in September are expected to amend Senate Bill 2433 to provide money for the juvenile programs. Even if they do not pass the measure, Farley said, county money is available to provide $1.9 million to juvenile service contractors, such as the two in San Gabriel Valley, and an additional $10 million to the county probation department for its juvenile programs.