Here’s Where L.A. County’s Mental Health Funds Go

The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health’s $256-million budget for fiscal 1990-91 was designed to support a complex network of services for the mentally ill, including 24 county-run outpatient clinics and 42 private, nonprofit clinics running programs under contract to the department.

In addition, the department provides funding to psychiatric units at four county hospitals, maintains residential programs for abused children or other special groups, and has rights to 1,080 beds in the state mental hospitals.

When the budget was adopted in August, the county Board of Supervisors was gambling on receiving millions of dollars of revenue from the passage of the Proposition 134 liquor tax on the Nov. 6 ballot. But Proposition 134 was defeated, leaving county mental health officials with the task of slashing $41.9 million in programs.

Unless alternative funding is found, the department plans to close 19 county-run clinics and cancel numerous program contracts that will cause an estimated 14 of the 42 private clinics to close and greatly reduce services at others. About 27,000 patients of 58,000 currently treated at the clinics will be cut off from care, mental health officials estimate.