Mental Health Council Loses Its Contract : Services: Whether clinic can keep operating without $370,000 in county funds is in doubt.

When the therapy group got the word last week that the cancellation of a county contract could lead to the closing of the Mid-Valley Community Mental Health Council, there were gasps and some tears.

For the group’s nine women, all childhood victims of sexual abuse, the Baldwin Park clinic provided an island of calm in often tempestuous emotional seas. But now they were told that their weekly meetings were threatened. There was anger and anxiety.

The concerns followed the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ cancellation Jan. 22 of a $370,000 contract that provided 70% of the budget for Mid-Valley, which has served the San Gabriel Valley since 1973.

After three years of criticizing Mid-Valley’s operation--saying that it did not serve enough clients or properly document its work--the county Mental Health Department last month recommended terminating the contract. The supervisors followed through on the recommendation with their recent vote.

In the wake of the county funding cut, eight of 20 clinic employees were let go Thursday and more layoffs are expected, said Mid-Valley Director Doug Stevens. A day-care program for severely mentally disturbed adults that the clinic operated at the First United Methodist Church in El Monte was closed Thursday.

Stevens said he is not sure if the clinic’s main office in Baldwin Park can stay open with its remaining funds, meaning that programs on family counseling, substance abuse, and teen-age delinquents might also be closed.

The clinic’s clients are mostly poor and receive treatment free or for payments based on a sliding scale linked to income. Several met last week at the clinic, housed on Maine Avenue in offices rented from the Baldwin Park Unified School District, to discuss the closure.

“I’m scared. I’m real scared,” said Maxine Torres, who has attended individual and group therapy sessions at Mid-Valley after being hospitalized for manic-depression. “I’ve found myself here. I’ve found my center. . . . I don’t want to go to the hospital again.”

One mother said closure of the El Monte day-care program has “caused a lot of stress” for young adults like her son, who went there to learn basic skills--how to ride the bus, order in a restaurant and shop in a market. The woman, who asked not to be identified, said her son would have to ride two or three buses to get to alternative clinics, such as the county-operated Arcadia Mental Health Center.

Francis Dowling, deputy director of the county’s Mental Health Department, promised that the agency’s clients will be referred to other clinics for treatment.

He said Mid-Valley had more than ample opportunity over three years to correct its deficiencies and failed to do so. A December report by Department of Health Services inspectors detailed the department’s complaints.

Depending on the program, Mid-Valley treated just 65% to 74% of the clients it was supposed to, the report said. The Baldwin Park office, for instance, had 598 visits from adults between July and October of last year, short of its target capacity of about 800.

The report also criticized Mid-Valley for having a physician on duty just 16 or 17 hours a week, instead of the 19 hours required in its contract. The discrepancy is significant, Dowling said, because it could disqualify Mid-Valley from receiving Medi-Cal reimbursements. He said that the money, in turn, would have to be repaid by the county, taking funds away from other mental health programs.

Inadequate records were maintained, the report also said, making it impossible for county officials to determine if adequate care was being provided.

Stevens conceded that his agency had fallen short of some of the county’s contract requirements, but he said the basic service provided was excellent.

He said Mid-Valley occasionally has fallen behind the required client load because of a shortage of staff. But the county also contributed to the problem, Stevens said, by referring fewer cases to Mid-Valley.

“I think they did that consciously,” Stevens said. “I think they wanted facts to support a decision they made a long time ago.”

Dowling denied that assertion.

Stevens said the problem of providing physician care is one that has hit all mental health agencies.

And the complaint about record keeping, he said, was overplayed. A loose document in one or two files, for example, was construed as a problem throughout the system, Stevens said.

Supervisors Mike Antonovich, Deane Dana and Ed Edelman voted to cancel the clinic’s contract with the county, saying that they accepted the Mental Health Department’s analysis of Mid-Valley’s deficiencies. Supervisor Pete Schabarum, whose district includes Baldwin Park, abstained. Supervisor Kenneth Hahn was absent.

Dowling said the Mental Health Department will try to assure that Mid-Valley’s clients receive service through county clinics and other private nonprofit agencies. Most are being referred to the county clinic in Arcadia or to Pasadena-based Pacific Clinics.

But Susan Montoya, program director at the clinic’s El Monte day-care center, said any change will be traumatic for the 25 men and women who go there regularly.

“I have clients who have been here for 10 years,” she said. “We provide them with a place that is safe and clean and we provide activities that are appropriate for their abilities.”

Torres and two other women in her Baldwin Park therapy group said that if Mid-Valley closes its doors, they will try to find a place to meet. Their counselor has agreed to stick with them.

“A lot of us feel we could be cut off from something we really need,” said Kathleen Buck, 35, a member of the therapy group. “We feel like the door has been closed in our face.”