In response to a federal court order, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved an initiative of up to $90 million on Tuesday aimed at improving mental health services for thousands of children monitored by the county's child welfare system.
The plan follows criticism that the county has been slow to reform the way it provides mental health care to foster children living with families.
County mental health officials said the plan would allow them to better assess the mental health needs of all children who come into contact with children's social workers, not just those who were removed from their parents. It also calls for an expansion of intensive mental health services to kids at home, thereby helping them remain with their families.
The initiative stems from a 4-year-old legal settlement between the county and children's rights groups. The groups alleged in a 2002 class-action lawsuit that the county routinely failed to provide foster children with adequate mental health care.
Lawyers who brought the lawsuit welcomed the county's latest initiative, which was approved unanimously by the board, but said it did not adequately address how to treat thousands more children who were severely traumatized by abuse, neglect and abandonment.
"It is progress, and we encourage that, but I wouldn't say that it meets their entire obligation. There's a substantial way to go," said Kimberly Lewis, an attorney at the Western Center on Law and Poverty, one of the groups that sued the county.
Although federal and state funding will pay for most of the initiative's costs, supervisors asked budget officials to explain where the county will find $33 million for its financial obligation under the plan. Mental health and child welfare officials are scheduled to present a funding plan to supervisors Aug. 7 and said they expect few problems.
But there are other obstacles. The union that represents child welfare employees has yet to sign off on the plan, which involves more work for frontline social workers. In addition, the county has struggled to hire qualified mental health professionals, yet will have to recruit more under the plan.
The new plan dramatically expands the number of children who will be assessed for mental health problems. About 25,000 children now live in foster care, but the county's Department of Children and Family Services continues to monitor an additional 13,000 who remain in their own homes.
