“A Wrongful Death: One Child’s Fatal Encounter With Public Health and Private Greed”

Leon Bing Villard Books

285 pages, $25

This book tells a story that might be familiar to Southern Californians--and Los Angeles Times readers, in particular. Leon Bing, of Pasadena, recounts the institutionalization and death of Christy Scheck, a 13-year-old Chula Vista girl who committed suicide in 1992 in a psychiatric inpatient facility. Bing documents how poorly served Christy was by the powerful mental-health providers in charge of her treatment and how her parents waged a campaign after her death to make those providers accountable. This part of the story was detailed in articles by David Olmos in The Times. The story raises questions about inpatient psychiatric services for out-of-control or ill adolescents. It’s a cautionary story that parents who face this dilemma would do well to read.