Supervisors’ Vote on ‘Merger’

* I am the medical director of the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department but I am writing this as a private, tax-paying citizen of the county of Ventura.

On April 7, our Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to merge the Behavioral Health Department with the welfare department to form the new Human Services Agency, bringing with it the 43-bed Hillmont Psychiatric Hospital and all the outpatient mental health and alcohol and drug clinics. While on the surface it is presented as a merger, in my opinion it was a move to subordinate mental health to welfare because the head of the new department is the current director of the Public Social Services Agency.

As a physician, I am appalled by this decision, which will be very bad for the care of the mentally ill in the long run. This vote is as absurd as the idea of merging, for example, Behavioral Health with the Sheriff’s Department because of the different missions of those two departments. In fact, that example would be less absurd because the mentally ill make up a smaller proportion of the welfare rolls than of the jail and prison population. Should we then merge the Sheriff’s Department with Behavioral Health? Any clear-thinking citizen would say no to this silly idea!

I think the vote on April 7 was ill-advised. And I suggest that all citizens with an interest in how our tax dollars are spent should contact their supervisor for an explanation of his or her vote.

JOHN W. WONG, M.D.

Oxnard