Usefulness of $298,000 Grant to Bolster Disaster Counseling Is Questioned : La Conchita: Program has been helping slide victims. But Supervisor Flynn would spend money elsewhere.

When the mountain came down on La Conchita on March 4, the value of Warren Bateman’s two properties in the seaside hamlet slid from more than $800,000 to zero.

And though the mudslide did not damage the homes--the Batemans have moved out only because of the threat of future sliding--the disaster jolted Bateman’s mental stability.

“I became mad at the world,” said Bateman, 62, a retired lighting director who worked in the motion picture industry. “I have worked very hard to acquire what I have. I can’t do it over again. My life savings is in the community.”

Bateman and other La Conchita residents credit a special county program that counsels disaster victims for helping them deal with the stress caused by the mudslide.

Every Thursday evening, a team of mental health workers from Project COPE holds a support group for La Conchita residents, who still fear the mountain could break loose at any time, crushing more homes. Bateman said the program, which has enabled more than 200 residents to meet with therapists and discuss their fears with neighbors, has eased the community’s psychological strain.

“With some people, you would just mention ‘the hill’ and they would break down and cry,” Bateman said. “Now they don’t as much. My wife, for one, is just much stronger now than in the beginning.”

Launched in January, 1994, to counsel victims of the Northridge earthquake, Project COPE has refocused its efforts, assisting Ventura County residents uprooted by this year’s January and March storms.

Ventura County Mental Health Services is poised to receive a $298,628 federal grant to keep Project COPE running until February. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors is set to vote Tuesday on whether to accept the grant.

But some officials question the use of federal funds to extend Project COPE’s life into next year.

“My priority would be first to help people get into their homes,” said Supervisor John K. Flynn. “That would relieve mental anguish. I am not sure that this type of program is worth it.”

Flynn said he would use the nearly $300,000 to build a dam in El Rio to help keep the community near Oxnard from flooding. According to Flynn, the money would better serve a different population.

“We need more money for the seriously mentally ill,” he said.

But Randall Feltman, the county’s mental health services director, said the county cannot divert the Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to another department. Facing $1.8 million in budget cuts, mental health services may not fill some vacant positions and may soon eliminate hospital beds reserved for the severely mentally ill. If it weren’t for the FEMA money, Feltman said, Project COPE simply would not exist.

According to Feltman, Project COPE not only serves a crucial need, it also strengthens public support for the county’s mental health system in general.

“We are able to demonstrate the value of the mental health system to people who were not aware of it,” Feltman said. “And we are able to build support for programs for people who are seriously mentally ill.”

And many flood victims, suffering lingering psychological trauma, need the counseling for months after the disaster, counselors say.

“La Conchita is experiencing pending doom like the disaster hasn’t ended,” said Kenny Aragon, one of the project’s bilingual counselors. “The water has receded but the hillside is still not safe. It is more difficult for them to move on with their healing process because [the disaster] is not over yet.”

According to Robert Benedetto, the program’s project director, Project COPE has also counseled the more than 200 homeless people who lived in the Ventura River bottom before the January floods. And many of the project’s approximately 75 part-time mental health professionals have worked with farm laborers pushed out of jobs and temporary housing when crops flooded.

“People are suffering from a lot of anxiety,” Benedetto said. “Some feel that they have no place to go. Some have very angry feelings. And some are not sleeping well. There is depression.”

Though Ventura County figures are not available, FEMA disbursed about $16.1 million statewide to individuals and families whose residences were damaged in the two winter storms. Ventura Mayor Tom Buford called the $298,628 grant for Project COPE a wise federal investment.

“I think this is an indication that the [flood victims] are not being forgotten,” Buford said. “Sometimes it takes longer to figure out how to repair lives than how to repair buildings.”