Tarzana : Comics to Join Benefit for Counseling Center

For 21 years, the Furthermore Foundation in Tarzana has offered counseling to victims of domestic violence, rape and incest as well as to troubled teen-agers. But after more than two decades of surviving on mostly private donations, the group is holding its first fund-raiser.

“We are literally paying to see people, because of our conscience,” Executive Director Angus Morrison said. “Otherwise we’d be throwing them out into the street.”

The fund-raiser is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at The Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. The evening will include music, magic and comedy with Steve Allen and Jeff Altman.

Groups like the Furthermore Foundation have been feeling the squeeze from shrinking contributions and increasing need. Also complicating the picture for them is medical insurers that have adopted a “tourniquet philosophy” of treating only the patient’s most extreme symptoms, Morrison said.

For example, one 16-year-old boy was brought in because he was hitting his mother. A managed-care organization said it would pay for six counseling sessions. But after stopping the abuse, counselors discovered the boy had much deeper problems.

When Morrison went back to the managed-care organization to ask for further funding, he said he was told: “If the patient is no longer hitting his mother, why are you continuing treatment?”

Morrison said he was stunned, but added that such cases are becoming more frequent.

Tickets for the benefit range from $25 to $100, and donors can buy ads in the program. For more information, call the Furthermore Foundation at (818) 342-2424, Ext. 2. The Furthermore Foundation, at 5530 Corbin Ave., Suite 155, Tarzana, also offers AIDS counseling and support groups for victims of earthquakes and fires.