Latinos Assail Proposed Cuts at Mental Clinic : Health: Santa Ana’s Clinica Nueva Esperanza, which gets 90% of its funding from county, ‘won’t be able to survive’ 40% drop in funding, director says. County officials agree but say other clinics face cuts too.

Orange County mental health administrators were criticized Tuesday for proposing more than 40% in funding cutbacks at a facility that serves low-income Spanish-speaking residents.

“We’re the only agency that has provided a multicultural approach to the mental health of a lot of Latinos,” said David Burciaga, executive director of Clinica Nueva Esperanza, which has served the Latino community for more than 20 years.

“These (proposed) cuts mean our clinic won’t be able to survive and we will have to close,” Burciaga said at a news conference.

A final decision on funding won’t be made until after a June 8 hearing before the County Board of Supervisors.

The clinic receives 90% of its annual $548,000 budget from the county, which seeks to cut about $216,000 in administrative costs, Burciaga said.

Timothy P. Mullins, the county’s mental health director, said that with the county facing a budget shortfall of nearly $136 million, the clinic is one of 10 mental health agencies facing severe budget reductions next year.

“Every single one of those cuts is painful,” Mullins said, who agreed the clinic would probably be forced to close.

However, Clinica’s board of directors, staff and supporters angrily denounced the cuts.

Low-income “Latinos who use this facility are not as comfortable, not as sophisticated to go out and demand services,” said Hector Godinez, one of the clinic’s founders and a former Orange County postmaster. “This is one of the programs that cannot be dropped.”

Godinez and others believe that if the clinic closes, Latinos will not use the county’s system of health clinics because of long waits, the language barrier, and because they’re too far away and clients have no means of transportation.

At county facilities, said Richard Valverde, a clinic board member, “there is always a long wait. It’s sad. The county cannot handle the amount of people now. And if the clinic closes, Latinos aren’t going to wait. After an hour and a half they’ll just leave.”

Burciaga said the county’s alternatives “look good on paper, but won’t work. Not with Latinos.”

Last year, Mullins’ overall budget was cut by $2 million, he said. “This year, I need to cut back another $1 million. Over two years, I’ve lost a net $3 million in program money.”

Mullins said that during the first year, almost all the budget cuts were at county facilities.

“They were across the board,” he said. “They included adult inpatient programs, adult outpatient services and children’s programs. This year it’s being spread at slightly higher proportions at our contract operations such as Clinica than at the county.”

“I don’t think they can survive at that reduced funding level,” Mullins said. “I think they’re going to go out of business.”

Latinos will continue to be served at county clinics in Westminster, Anaheim, Fullerton, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo, he said.

Mullins acknowledged there are long waits at county clinics, but he said that Spanish-speaking residents are being served on a regular basis.

In fact, in a six-month period Clinica reported serving 407 individuals. During the same period, the county’s clinics served 1,170 Latinos, Mullins said.

“That doesn’t make the clinic insignificant, but we also have a record of serving Latinos,” Mullins said. “ . . . I think I can look people in the eye and say the county’s safety net system will continue to run. But we will have lost a number of very valuable programs.”