Mental Health Care
* The Little Hoover Commission report on California’s mental health system (Nov. 21) should be a clarion call to fix a broken and inadequate system. California has a shameful tradition of never providing adequate mental health services for the severely mentally ill. The promises of reform in the 1950s and 1960s were never carried out. Instead, we see the mentally ill on the street corners and sleeping in parks and prisons but not in our clinics and hospitals. The need is for access and funding and the reform of antiquated laws. Providing care for those who need it should be a given, not just a platitude. We call on the people of California to support decent care for the over 5 million Californians who experience mental illness every year and the 1.5 million Californians who have unmet mental health needs.
MARC D. GRAFF MD
Chair, Public Affairs
Calif. Psychiatric Assn., Reseda
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