Rally Attacks Proposed Cuts for Mentally Disabled : Budget: Caretakers and patients plead for protection from massive reductions under governor’s plan.

Before passage in 1969 of California’s Lanterman Act, entitling the developmentally disabled to services from the state, Pat Cambern’s autistic and epileptic daughter was confined to a mental institution, she said Thursday.

Since then, however, Cambern’s daughter, Sharon, 39, has been living at home in Studio City and attending day programs to learn to become independent. But Cambern fears that if Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed budget cuts are approved, which she said would all but gut the provisions of the Lanterman Act, her daughter will have to be institutionalized because she cannot afford to provide the care on her own.

Cambern was among about 100 developmentally disabled people, relatives and friends who gathered Thursday in Van Nuys to send a message.

“Call the governor,” said Mike Danneker, executive director of the Westside Regional Center in Culver City, one of 21 such centers that coordinate services through local agencies. “Tell him you do not want your programs destroyed.”

Cambern said she does not want to see her daughter returned to an institution. “Her existence there was so dreadful. The governor needs to realize that it is more fiscally responsible to save our programs than it would be to warehouse people who are developmentally disabled in institutions.”

Wilson’s budget proposal would amend the Lanterman Act to eliminate the unqualified entitlement to services it conferred on the developmentally disabled, and instead limit services to whatever could be paid for by Legislature appropriations.

Officials from several nonprofit agencies that provide services to the developmentally disabled said they could absorb some budget cuts, but to eliminate the funding entirely could be disastrous.

“Some of the parents are afraid they’re going to start finding mentally retarded people living under bridges,” said Steve Miller, executive director of Tierra del Sol Foundation in Sunland. “That’s a little hyperbole, but the point is that without the Lanterman Act assuring their right to treatment, they could join the homeless.”

Gail Peters, programs manager for Work Training Programs Inc. in Chatsworth, which provides prevocational training, independent living services and job placement, said the programs have been successful. As an example, she cites the eight-member full-time janitorial staff at the Van Nuys state building, all of whom have gone through her program.

“Our goal is productive independence for people with developmental disabilities,” Peters said. “We want them to become contributing members of society, to become taxpayers rather than tax burdens.”

Several parents and participants in such programs spoke at the morning rally.

Amelia Favela and Rebecca Quevedo, both of Pacoima proudly explained that their sons, Phillip Favela and Michael Quevedo, both 29, have learned to use public transportation and currently are working part time as a result of attending day programs.

“Without the programs, Phillip would probably just sit at home and watch television,” Favela said.