Mental Health Care

* Where should Ventura County’s mental health delivery system be going? In my opinion, the Systems of Care program should serve the needs of the patients first, forgetting bureaucratic and authority-preserving considerations.

If a patient is under medication as a primary model of care, he or she should be supervised by a psychiatrist. If a patient needs mostly therapeutic support, he or she should be handled by a staff member who is more understanding of patients’ needs and values.

The basic principles of psychiatry and psychology still stand but times have changed. Freud is not delving into people’s sex lives anymore; instead there are nurses advising patients how to practice safe sex. Psychiatrists are not gods anymore but mostly prescribers of medications. Clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, psychiatric technicians and certainly psychologists are now able to deal therapeutically with patients.

ADOLPH DONINS

Oxnard

* It is disappointing to see what is happening in Ventura County with regard to the treatment of the mentally ill.

It is sad that family members of the mentally ill are afraid to speak up because they fear that their loved ones will be mistreated or denied treatment. It is sad that employees who are supposed to take care of and protect the mentally ill take advantage of them. It is sad that our county Mental Health Board has a chairman who misinforms its members and controls the board. It is sad that we, the citizens of Ventura County, just go out and make a conclusion without studying in depth what is actually transpiring. It is sad that our county leaders close their eyes and let county staff go unpunished for their wrongdoings. Above all, it is sad that we have a state senator who has vowed to block state funds from going to our county in order to protect those who improperly implemented her Systems of Care.

Our county is facing millions of dollars in penalties for fraudulent billings signed by past administrations of the Behavioral Health Department.

The mentally ill should not be further victimized by the wrong decision of our three county supervisors, backed by the powerful employees’ union and the wrongdoing of the past two administrations.

ANDREW W. CHUI

Camarillo