Flynn Seeks Mental Health System Revamp

Declaring that the needs of Ventura County’s mentally ill are “a moral issue” and therefore a top priority, Supervisor John Flynn unveiled a sweeping proposal Monday aimed at revamping the Behavioral Health Department to improve patient services.

Flynn said it is time to “decriminalize” mental health, stop throwing sick people in jail rather than treatment facilities and get serious about de-stigmatizing an illness that affects thousands of local residents.

“As an elected official, I cannot stand by and simply witness so many people giving only lip service to this most pressing issue,” Flynn told the county’s mental health board. “They need to be awakened by what I personally classify as a moral issue of the highest order.”

The proposal, which would need the support of his colleagues on the county Board of Supervisors, took some by surprise.

County Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford said he wasn’t consulted. He called Flynn’s plan a “vision statement,” with the hard part being to actually make it work.

“I admire him for articulating a vision, and that’s appropriate,” Hufford said. “It is an ambitious program that needs a lot of work.”

Supervisor Frank Schillo rejected the notion that he and other board members had only paid “lip service” to the plight of the mentally ill.

Schillo said work is being done on building 125 housing units on Lewis Road for the mentally ill. He said a new lock-down facility for the severely mentally ill is being planned and a psychiatric residency program is in the works for the county.

David Gudeman, director of the county’s Behavioral Health Department, pledged his support for Flynn’s proposal.

“It’s really gratifying to have an elected official understand these issues,” Gudeman said.

Flynn said his proposal is not an “end product” but just the beginning of a complicated process, including gaining interagency cooperation and arranging funding for planned programs. It includes more than a dozen components, among them to:

* Provide more financial assistance to parents who care for mentally ill family members at home.

* Enhance quality control within the Behavioral Health Department.

* Place more psychiatric doctors in the field.

* Integrate mental health crisis teams with law-enforcement agencies.

* Make mental health housing a top priority for the next decade.

* Enlist help from all law-enforcement agencies in dealing with the mentally ill.

* Define more clearly the goals of the Behavioral Health Department.

Flynn said the plan could be paid for with part of the annual $10 million the county will get in tobacco settlement money, in addition to state and federal grants.

He said he wants to set the plan in motion after holding a countywide public meeting of law enforcement officials and mental health specialists. He added that he wants officials to come up with new ways of dealing with the county’s mentally ill population.

“We need to get judges, the district attorney, probation, the sheriff--all the criminal justice people involved,” he said.

“They cannot feel comfortable locking up people who wouldn’t be in that position if they had gotten treatment.”

Flynn’s proposal to alter the county’s mental health system wouldn’t be the first attempt.

In 1998, the county merged the mental health and social services department.

But after nine months, supervisors were forced to dismantle the merger, which sparked half a dozen federal and state audits. One audit found the county had overbilled Medicare for a decade, resulting in a $15.3-million federal fine.

Sheriff Bob Brooks said he supports the concept of Flynn’s plan. He said law enforcement has for years been in the awkward position of arresting many mentally ill offenders who have fallen through various social-service safety nets.

“Law enforcement is a key component,” he said.

“There are just not enough options available.”