Allan Rawland

Los Angeles County supervisors voted for the first time Tuesday to turn over the operation of a county-run mental health clinic to a private firm, but not before weathering some controversy over the contract award. Employees and union representatives at the La Puente Community Mental Health Center challenged the $2.1-million agreement after complaining that the pact would cost the county money and disrupt care for mental health patients in the San Gabriel Valley.

Los Angeles County supervisors voted for the first time Tuesday to turn over the operation of a county-run mental health clinic to a private firm, but not before weathering some controversy over the contract award. Employees and union representatives at the La Puente Community Mental Health Center challenged the $2.1-million agreement after complaining that the pact would cost the county money and disrupt care for mental health patients in the San Gabriel Valley.

We mourn the tragic and untimely death of a committed and compassionate social worker, Robbyn Panitch, who died while doing what she loved; helping the disenfranchised and desperate members of our society, the homeless chronically mentally disabled. Your editorial ("Death at the Clinic," Feb. 23) expressed the deep feelings that we all share for a colleague who represented the highest ideals of our profession: respect for the inherent worth of all human beings, and a firm belief in equal opportunities for all members of our society.

San Bernardino County officials said Thursday that they are making changes at the Department of Behavioral Health after three county therapists failed to report a bloodied knife and pair of jeans to law enforcement officials at the site of a fatal stabbing. The therapists arrived on the afternoon of Jan. 8 to look for evidence of drug use at an independent living home for seven mentally ill felons in the 300 block of South Bixby Way in Upland, according to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office.

The Los Angeles Police Department has begun an experimental program in the San Fernando Valley to determine whether a mental health expert can help police monitor behavior of emotionally disturbed people and reduce the crimes they commit. In the one-year program, which may be expanded to all Los Angeles police divisions if successful, a social worker went to work two weeks ago at the Van Nuys Division police station.