Missed opportunity
Re “Hospital to pay in dumping case,” April 9
The settlement imposed on College Hospital after it allegedly dumped mentally ill homeless patients on skid row missed a crucial opportunity to end this problem altogether.
Requiring the hospital to pay $1.6 million in penalties and charitable contributions does little to help other institutions that need to discharge mentally ill patients back to the streets.
Imagine if the judge had required College Hospital to form a regionwide coalition of similar psychiatric hospitals, joined by leaders representing law, business, government, families and nonprofit organizations. The coalition, funded by the $1.6 million, could have been tasked to evaluate and address the dysfunctional mental health community treatment system and the lack of permanent supportive housing and civil rights laws that make it difficult to help the severely mentally ill.
Merely slapping one hospital with a $1.6-million settlement allows this widespread problem to remain unsolved.
Kerry Morrison
Hollywood
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