Compulsory Treatment for Mental Health

While “ ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ Revisited” (editorial, Nov. 22) admirably points up the severe and often-ignored problem of the homeless, it also makes a pitch for compulsory mental health care. Psychiatrists and psychiatric drug companies have been trying to open this door for years, simply because people won’t seek such help on their own. There’s a good reason: There is no “help” there.

Eleven years ago my own brother, homeless at the time, was taken into a state-funded mental health program. Did it help? No. He is now dependent on depressants to keep him from throwing fits and is still a ward of the state. Multiply this by millions and you’ll see what an enormous and costly blunder funding such bills as mentioned in your editorial would be.

Find a solution for the homeless? Yes. But taxpayer-expensive and compulsory mental health treatment clearly is not that solution.

Bruce Boyers

Sunland

*

As the parent of a daughter stricken with bipolar disorder, I have suffered for many years under the current medieval laws restricting my ability to obtain treatment for her. It may be too late to help her, but thousands following could be saved if your editorial is heeded.

Roger West

Seal Beach

*

I wish to commend The Times for its outstanding series of editorials about the plight of the mentally ill and homeless in Los Angeles and in the rest of California.

Our state mental hospitals are nearly gone, but our jails and prisons are full of the mentally ill. The downtown streets are witness to a generation lost. Politicians and people of goodwill need to reform our mental health laws and vote to pay for the treatment of the mentally ill.

Psychiatric care is a necessity, as we have been reminded by the tragedies of Sept. 11. It is time to act. It is time to stand up for treatment instead of neglect. And, it is long past time to care for California’s mentally ill.

Marc Graff MD

Chair, Public Affairs California Psychiatric Assn .