Grand Jury Assails County Mental Clinics for Children : Health: Scathing report alleges Anaheim facility is unsafe, claims youngsters with problems in predominantly white areas get better service.

The Orange County Grand Jury on Tuesday issued a scathing report on the county health agency’s Children and Youth Services department, charging that the agency operates one unsafe clinic for children with mental health problems and provides better services in predominantly white areas of the county.

The report, which also accused the department’s leadership of consistently ignoring a wide range of staff problems, called on county officials to immediately close the agency’s Anaheim clinic, stating that the prevailing environment there is “unpleasant and potentially dangerous for its young patients.”

The grand jury urged county officials to launch an immediate study “to resolve the imbalance of treatment relative to minorities.”

Tom Uram, director of the county’s Health Care Agency, which oversees the department under criticism, declined comment Tuesday, saying that he and other agency officials needed time to study the grand jury’s report.

But a senior grand jury official said Uram and other department heads have acknowledged problems within the agency, and had taken only “token” steps to correct them.

Reynold Elkin, who chaired the committee that investigated the health agency department, said the grand jury planned to ask the Orange County Board of Supervisors to help resolve these “drastic problems.”

“We don’t intend for (these recommendations) to go by the wayside,” Elkin said. “These children are crying out for help, and we feel these (recommendations) would . . . provide better services for our youngsters.”

Members of the grand jury began their investigation in August, 1992, after receiving a routine complaint from a citizen about the county’s Social Services Agency. During an investigation into that complaint, the grand jurors stumbled on the problems at the Health Care Agency. The resulting inquiry led to visits to 35 county facilities and interviews with at least five dozen people.

Of particular concern to grand jury members were the 14 county-run mental health clinics that treat school-age children who suffer from mental health problems.

Grand jury members found that the Anaheim clinic at 125 E. Ball Road is upstairs from an adult mental health unit, whose “clientele includes drug users and other emotionally disturbed persons.”

“Conditions at the clinic are not only unpleasant and dangerous for its young patients,” the report states, “(but) they also expose the county to potential liability for accidents arising from these conditions.”

The report also noted that the department provides services to a “much higher percentage of the white population than to minorities.” Seven of the department’s 14 clinics are located in predominantly white South County, and several of the South County clinics are located in schools.

But department officials had discouraged attempts to have school-based clinics in the east, west and north regions, the report notes, stating that “resources are not adequate to serve all those in need.”

“As a result, important mental health services are not available to large portions of the population,” the report states.

Grand jury members pointed out that the service chief of the South County region is the wife of the department’s unnamed deputy assistant director, creating “an appearance of favoritism and bias in the allocation of resources to South County.”

“Her clinics are superior to (those in) other regions in terms of furnishings, adequate . . equipment, staff, caseload,” the report states.

Elkin said morale in the east, west and north regions was particularly low because “staff there don’t feel they have a professional input in important matters and they feel one region is very successful at the expense of the other three.”

He and other grand jury members suggested that the department should share and redistribute some of the resources enjoyed by the South County region, and that the head of the southern region should be transferred to another area.

The grand jury also criticized the lack of communication among the various county agencies that offer children services.

“A child is often treated as a unit and is moved from place to place at the will of the Orange County Social Services or the Orange County Probation Department,” the grand jury report states. “Many times, no consolidated attempt is made to treat a child as the focus of a well-orchestrated and coordinated treatment plan. . . .”

Unbalanced Treatment While students use public mental health services far out of proportion to their share of total school enrollment. An Orange County Grand Jury report points to more and better equippedclinics serving the predominantly white South County student population as a reason. School enrollment (grades K-12) White: 52% Black: 2% Asian: 12% Latino: 34% Patients receiving treatment White: 74% Asian: 3% Black: 4% Latino: 19% Source: Department of Children and Youth Services