Camarillo Hospital to Lay Off 90

Officials at the sprawling Camarillo State Hospital and Developmental Center said Monday they plan to lay off at least 90 employees, from physicians to plumbers, due to state funding cuts and declining patient numbers.

The seniority-based layoffs could become even more severe, hospital Director David Freehauf told more than 300 of the hospital’s 1,800 employees who were packed into a sweltering lunchroom at the facility just south of Camarillo.

Freehauf told the staff members to brace for more layoffs if county mental health departments choose to send acutely ill patients to cheaper private and public programs rather than to the state hospital--where annual costs are approaching $100,000 per patient.

But layoffs will come from both the hospital, which treats about 460 mentally ill patients, and the developmental center, which cares for about 585 mentally handicapped people, officials said.

“I think everybody is pretty unsettled about it--morale has been really low,” music therapist Amy Schroller, a 14-year employee from Ventura, said afterward.

“I think there’s a tendency in the Developmental Center to feel we’re a little better off because the population is going down in the hospital, but we’re not,” she said. “It’s going to impact all of us.”

The largest group hit will be nurses and psychiatric technicians, 66 of whom are to be let go within the next 120 days under the 1993-94 budget, Freehauf said. The hospital also will lay off five physicians, two psychologists, 10 rehabilitation therapists, two plumbers, two painters, two clerical workers and a cook, he said.

“That’s a scenario that’s real, and I’m sorry to say it’s a conservative scenario for next year,” Freehauf told the employees, some of whom were hired less than two years ago. “Until we know what the counties are purchasing in the way of beds for next year, we won’t know about the client (population) that drives the services.

“When we find out, we’ll let you know,” Freehauf added, drawing some nervous laughter from the staff members.

Afterward, employees clustered on the lawn outside to discuss the layoffs, a few of which have already been carried out.

“I’ve already been declared a ‘surplus person,’ ” sighed Michele Roulston, 55, one of five nursing instructors who have already been told they will be let go because the hospital does not need to train new nurses or psychiatric technicians.

“They’re only required to tell us 30 days before, of the dastardly things they’re going to do to us, but they already told us,” said Roulston, a 15-year Camarillo State employee. “I wish it weren’t happening, because I do a good job at what I do. There are real problems with self-esteem any time you’re told you’re ‘surplus people.’ ”

Marisa Amoroso said she believes she will lose the job she landed three years as a psychiatric technician working with autistic children.

“This is the first definite word I’ve heard that confirms it,” she said. “I think it’s sad that (the hospital) goes ignored, that the people that need to be taken care of in the state are ignored.”

One new employee, only a year and eight months on the job, seemed resigned to her fate.

“I’m more than sure I will be laid off,” said the young woman, a children’s rehabilitation therapist who asked not to be named. “If they say it’s only five, I’ll be one. I may go back to school full time.”

Other employees said the patients sense nervousness among the staff members.

“I think the patients are feeling it, they’re more agitated,” said a veteran psychiatric technician, who also asked not to be identified. “It’s like a child-parent relationship. When the parents are tense, the child is tense.”

Freehauf said after the meeting that he has no idea how many more could be laid off. “We’re working with 12 labor organizations, and we have 12 contracts that depend partly on how much the counties are going to spend,” he said.

But county governments around Southern California--already scrabbling for money to shore up eroding fire and police budgets--may decide to spend less on expensive state hospital beds at Camarillo State.

Although Ventura County officials say they will continue next year to pay for about 30 beds, Los Angeles County may reduce its use of 275 beds at the hospital, said Dr. R.W. Burgoyne, medical director for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

“The only thing we have to go on is the guideline, which is to prepare for 8% cuts in all departments,” Burgoyne said last week. “It’s just a function of what the county has available to spend.”

Hospital, county and state mental health officials are scrambling to make beds cheaper, combing through state and federal insurance laws to find ways to make Medi-Cal and Medicare pick up more of the cost of psychiatric treatments, he said. Bringing down the cost could entice counties to send more patients to Camarillo State, he said.