Mental Health Clinic’s Disrepair Threatens Service : County: Reactions of parents, health officials often differ on call to close children’s unit.

The yellow school bus pulls up in the rear parking lot of the California Building, and its lone occupant, a 12-year-old girl dressed in white shorts and a red Hawaiian shirt, hops out.

Nearby, a shirtless man is leaning against the building, muttering to a friend and sometimes to no one in particular. His left arm is apparently broken and in a sling. His bare back reveals two pancake-sized bruises. The girl skips past him and enters the building through glass doors.

Both the girl and the young man have come here for the same purpose: to receive treatment at two mental health clinics run by the county. One clinic treats adults only; the other treats children.

The proximity of the two clinics is now a subject of criticism and concern.

The Orange County Grand Jury, in a blistering report on the health agency’s Children and Youth Services Department, last week called for the immediate closure of the children’s clinic, stating that the facility is “potentially dangerous for its young patients” and exposes the county to “potential liability for accidents arising from these conditions.”

The grand jury suggested 28 steps the department could take to improve children’s services. But topping the list of recommendations was the proposal to close the clinic.

The report states that “the nearest bathroom (for children) is located in the adult mental health wing, whose clientele includes drug users and other emotionally disturbed persons.” The grand jury also cited low staff morale at the children’s clinic and poor maintenance of the building.

Officials of the two clinics said they agree that the building is in poor condition. They said they have complained for years about its state of disrepair--the roof leaks, the carpet is seldom cleaned, and the heat and air-conditioning units frequently break down.

Even as the building deteriorates, demand for services grows. During the last year, the offices have become increasingly cramped because the adult clinic has had to take on patients once treated at the county-run Garden Grove clinic, which was closed last year due to budget cuts. The Anaheim clinic’s caseload has almost tripled--from 220 last year to 610 in 1993.

On any given day, more than 100 adults--classified as “acutely mentally ill,” “acutely disturbed,” and “homeless mentally ill”--visit the adult facility seeking help.

They gather in and around the compound of the California Building--a cinder-block structure at the corner of Ball Road and Claudina Place, only a few blocks from Disneyland. The building is next to the service department of a Dodge dealership.

Inside, the disrepair is evident. The carpet in the narrow, long corridors is spotty with dirt. It emits a musty smell. Sections of the wallpaper have been ripped, revealing patches of plaster below.

And graffiti scrawled on a sign in front of the building greets visitors.

A few adult clients gather in the rear parking lot, where the school buses that transport the children pull up.

From there, the children enter through some glass doors, walk past a waiting room where mentally ill adults are waiting to see their psychiatrists and climb a dimly lit flight of stairs to their counselor’s offices on the second floor.

Last week, county officials acknowledged that in the last six months there have been three violent outbreaks in the adult clinic involving a client who assaulted a staff member, another client who had to be disarmed of a knife and a third who attempted suicide.

Reynold Elkin, who chaired the grand jury committee that investigated the Children’s Services Department, said staff members told grand jury officials that in one especially alarming incident, a mentally ill adult patient “pulled a knife and held (it) to a psychiatrist’s throat for a very long time.”

“This place is in bad condition,” said Elkin. “Do we have to have someone murdered before they close the place up?”

Still, officials insist that the violent incidents have been exaggerated. And they are concerned that the grand jury is perpetuating the stereotype that the mentally ill are more violent than the rest of the population.

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Manny Robles, who heads the west and north regions of the Children and Youth Services Department, said adult patients keep to themselves and have never threatened the children.

“It’s an ugly building, but that’s it,” Robles said. “We would like to find a better place, but we have to provide a service for the children in the meantime.”

Phyllis Crane, a psychologist at the children’s clinic, said she always take precautions with her clients. She routinely escorts them to the restroom and to their buses after counseling sessions, she said.

“The adult patients ignore them and they ignore the adults,” Crane said. “But if I’m walking with a child in the corridor and we meet (an adult client), I always let the child walk inside to shield them.”

But not everyone agrees with mental health officials.

Like Michael and Teresa Knutson, an Anaheim couple who have been bringing their 12-year-old daughter, Andrea, to the children’s clinic since March, 1992. Andrea suffers from what psychologists call attention deficit disorder, which causes her to have frequent emotional outbursts.

Teresa Knutson, Andrea’s step-mother, agrees with the grand jury report that the children’s clinic should be closed.

Knutson said mentally ill adults harass her in the parking lot and frequently ask her for cigarettes and spare change.

“You come here trying to get your child on track and you see these people who need the help or should have had the help,” Knutson said. “It’s depressing and irritating . . . because I know they could go out and do better.”

But not all parents share that opinion--or experience.

Yolanda Reyes, a 29-year-old Anaheim machine operator, has been bringing her 9-year-old son for therapy for the last three years.

“Going there (to the clinic) has made a lot of difference in our lives,” Reyes said, “and in all the years we’ve gone there, they (the adult patients) have never bothered us. They never gave me dirty looks or anything. They need help too.”

County officials say they are actively searching for new offices for the adult and children’s clinics.

Elkin of the grand jury said he hopes they find new--and separate--buildings soon.

“We don’t want them to close the clinic up and throw the kids on the street,” Elkin said. “But we want these kids to be comfortable. They deserve better.”