County May Revamp Transfer Practice for Mental Health Funds

Responding to criticism from mental health advocates, Ventura County administrators Monday proposed changing the county’s practice of quietly transferring millions of dollars in mental health funding to other departments.

Under the proposal, a transfer would occur only after the county first notified the Ventura County Mental Health Board, an advisory group to the Board of Supervisors.

The county’s chief administrative office also would be required to do an economic analysis to show that the transferred money would be used effectively, according to a draft of the proposals presented at Monday’s Mental Health Board meeting in Ventura.

State and local mental health advocates have criticized the county’s practice of moving money earmarked for mental health services--so-called realignment revenue--to pay costs in the county’s public hospital and other departments. Since 1991, Ventura County has transferred, with little public oversight, more than $4 million of mental health funds.

Advance notice of such transfers would give advocates the chance to lobby county supervisors before the shifts are approved, said Carol Luppino, who has a relative receiving mental health care from the county. Supervisors are expected to consider the recommendations, crafted by county budget chief Bert Bigler, at their May 25 meeting.

“I want the Board of Supervisors to keep this money in the mental health department. If I know it [a transfer] is happening, I can tell them that,” Luppino said. “We have people seriously ill with no place to live, yet they’ve been transferring that money out.”

Also on Monday, Dr. David Gudeman, acting director of the Behavioral Health Department, unveiled a $4-million plan to increase services to the county’s mentally ill.

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The wide-ranging plan includes a program to build housing for destitute mentally ill adults--a priority item in the mental health community--and offer increased psychiatric services on county crisis teams.

A housing consultant has already been hired to help the county develop a five-year plan, Gudeman told the Mental Health Board. Funding for the multimillion-dollar plan is not yet certain, but some realignment money could be used, county officials said.

Family and friends of the mentally ill applauded after the board voted unanimously to support the program proposals. Supervisor John K. Flynn, who sits on the Mental Health Board, said identifying needs is a necessary first step.

“Unless you identify these as policies to follow, the dollars will never exist,” Flynn said after the meeting.

Flynn said he also supports the recommended changes for allocating realignment money.

“If the advocates are not getting information, I can see where they can become upset,” he said.

Bigler’s recommendations closely follow guidelines proposed by the California Mental Health Planning Council. The Sacramento-based council released a report in March showing that 18 California counties--Ventura among them--routinely transfer money from mental health trust funds to other county agencies.

While supervisors have the authority to move the money around, the council recommended that local mental health advisory boards be given advance notice of proposed transfers.

The council also recommended that counties perform an analysis to satisfy the state’s requirement that transfers occur only if they result in the most effective use of the money.

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Bigler said it may be difficult to provide early notification of transfers, because the county often does not know how much realignment money the state will provide until mid-May, when budget hearings are just a few weeks away.

The county recently learned, for example, that it will not use all of the $1.5 million slated to be shifted from mental health to the county’s health agency by the end of June, Bigler said. The amount transferred is reduced by $277,700, he said.

But the proposed policy changes are intended to show the public that the county is committed to making the process as open as possible, Bigler said.

“We’re going to do our best to make sure that everyone knows about it,” he said.