Mental Health Services

Your headline, “Proposal Offered to Save County Mental Services” (Aug. 19), gave L.A. citizens a false sense of security. Yes! The Department of Mental Health is devising a plan to mitigate the horrendous loss created by the Department of Health Services’ precipitous decision to cease $95 million of psychiatric services. However, the Department of Mental Health cannot create a safety net for Los Angeles’ most psychiatrically disabled people with the meager amount of money available to it: $30 million of which $15 million is a one-time sales tax rollover fund. (No one even attempts to articulate what happens next year when this $15 million is gone.)

People with mental illness were dumped out of state hospitals three decades ago. Now, just as medical science advances with newer, more effective medications and treatment, Los Angeles County dumps them out again.

Shame on us, L.A. Mental illness is not caused by weak characters or bad parenting. Those who suffer it are no more to blame for their neurobiological illness than those who suffer from multiple sclerosis, diabetes or other chronic diseases. Yet, we continue to sacrifice this population more than any other. Expect to see more people lost in our communities and overcrowding our jails. And, remember, this time we put them there because we refused to pay for the treatment they so badly need.

CARLA JACOBS

First Vice President

California Alliance for the Mentally Ill

Long Beach

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* When I manage my finances, I consider the best- and worst-case scenarios. Thus, even if the worst-case scenario occurs I can still afford to eat, to pay for my medical insurance and to pay back my school loans. How come our Board of Supervisors was unable to prepare for a $655-million deficit in health care alone? Furthermore, how come what makes sense for an individual cannot be done for a county? I sure am glad that the Board of Supervisors is not managing my finances.

STEVEN F. WOLFE MD

Chief Resident, Dermatology

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center