Lobbyist Joins Fight to Save State Hospital

Not convinced that local legislators can do the job, family members and advocates of the mentally ill have hired a professional lobbyist to persuade Sacramento lawmakers not to close the aging Camarillo State Hospital.

Friends and relatives of Camarillo State patients said Tuesday they will do whatever it takes to convince the Legislature not to approve Gov. Pete Wilson’s plan to close the hospital.

Supporters plan to push instead for the closure of Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, a facility they say is awash in substandard help and less successful in treating patients than the Camarillo institution.

“The lobbyist is there in Sacramento, so she knows the legislators who are pro- and anti-[Camarillo State Hospital],” said Lita Biejo, president of a group calling itself Families and Advocates for the Mentally Ill.

“Once we know who is who, we can develop a strategy and get people who have influence with them,” Biejo said.

The private lobbying effort comes as state and local officials are plotting a closed-door meeting to attack Wilson’s recommendation to close the hospital.

State Sen. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley, has called a Friday conference of mayors, city managers, Chamber of Commerce leaders and the directors of the state departments of mental health and developmental services.

But the meeting will not be open to family members of Camarillo State patients, interested community leaders or the media, a Wright spokesman said.

“What we want is a straightforward, factual, nonemotional dialogue with the local elected officials from the community,” said John Theiss, a Wright aide.

“This is not an opportunity for anyone to raise their flag in support or opposition to the hospital,” he said. “If families, the general public and the media arrive, you defeat the purpose of having a meaningful dialogue.”

Theiss said the patients’ relatives and the public would be invited to a general meeting late next month.

Family members contacted Tuesday said they want to be involved in planning the opposition to Wilson’s plan to dismantle the hospital.

“I would be very disappointed if they were to hold a meeting about the future of Camarillo State and not include the parents,” said John Chase, an advocate for the mentally ill whose son is treated at Camarillo State.

“If we’re not involved, they’re sure going to hear about it,” he said. “We will impose ourselves on them.”

The Sacramento consultant hired by Families and Advocates of the Mentally Ill won a similar battle in 1982, when then-Gov. George Deukmejian proposed converting Camarillo State into a state prison.

Hedy Govenar said she has not yet begun contacting legislators for her campaign. But she already opposes a proposal to keep the hospital open by stocking it with more potentially violent mentally ill felons.

“You’re talking about putting predators in with probably the most vulnerable population,” she said. “These mentally ill wouldn’t have any way to defend themselves from people who were convicted of sexually violent crimes.”

Rather than shut down Camarillo State, health administrators should consider closing Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, as recommended in an April 1995 report by the state legislative analyst, local advocates say.

“Consolidation of services would enable the state to close a facility, operate the remaining facilities at lower vacancy rates . . . and increase federal disbursements for mentally disabled patients,” the report said.

Retired Oxnard attorney Leo O’Hearn supports that plan. “It’s the best solution,” said O’Hearn, the father of a Camarillo State patient. “Camarillo is a superior mental health facility.”

Most of the other parents of Camarillo State patients also would prefer that Metropolitan be shut down instead, O’Hearn said.

“We can get people from all over L.A. County to say that, especially the San Fernando Valley,” he said. “Those places are closer to Camarillo than they are Norwalk.”

Dr. Robert Liberman, a UCLA professor and nationally recognized psychiatrist who runs a research center at Camarillo State, charged that patients at Metropolitan are typically over-medicated and less cared for than at Camarillo.

Metropolitan State spokeswoman Cathy Bernarding defended the level of care patients receive at her institution.

“Obviously, I wouldn’t agree with any of the issues in regard to patient care,” Bernarding said. “The patient care at Metropolitan and Camarillo is very similar.”