D Michael O Connor

As the honored luncheon guest at the Hall of Administration, Dr. D. Michael O'Connor, state director of mental health, listened intently Tuesday as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors pleaded its case for more county hospital beds for the mentally ill. The night before, O'Connor was also the center of attention at a church hall in South Los Angeles during a meeting of the newly formed Los Angeles Advocates for Mental Health.

As the honored luncheon guest at the Hall of Administration, Dr. D. Michael O'Connor, state director of mental health, listened intently Tuesday as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors pleaded its case for more county hospital beds for the mentally ill. The night before, O'Connor was also the center of attention at a church hall in South Los Angeles during a meeting of the newly formed Los Angeles Advocates for Mental Health.

David Weisburd's mental illness struck without warning when he was a sophomore at Harvard University. The brilliant, handsome young man was suddenly tormented by inexplicable voices that he could not silence, voices that threatened to kill him. "David took me to the television set and said, 'Look, Dad, don't you see what they're doing; the whole world wants me dead,' " recalled Dan E. Weisburd. He said his son then "ran about 15 or 20 feet and smashed his head into the front door.

Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk and Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County have been accredited for the first time by the prestigious Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals in Chicago, state Mental Health Director Dr. D. Michael O'Connor has announced. All five state mental hospitals now have three-year accreditations from the commission.

Paul Jacobs and The Times should be commended for their work on the three-part series (March 18-20) on the mental health system in California. The depth of the articles, along with their Page 1 prominence, enabled the readers to become familiar with many of the crucial issues affecting the care and treatment of California's mentally ill. Some points raised in the second and third articles demand clarification. First, the opening paragraph in the third article is potentially misleading: "Even if Gov. George Deukmejian gets the substantial boost in funding for the mentally ill he has called for this year, state support for mental health will be less than it was before he took office."

Five state hospitals in California that treat the mentally ill, including Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, have all raised their standard of care enough to achieve national accreditation for the first time, state officials said Tuesday. Other facilities now accredited are Camarillo Hospital in Ventura County, Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, Atascadero State Hospital in San Louis Obispo County and Napa State Hospital. Dr. D.

Patients' health and safety are still endangered at San Diego County's Hillcrest mental hospital, but the county should be given at least two more weeks to make improvements before the place is closed, state health officials said in a report released Friday. The report, issued jointly by the directors of the state departments of health and mental health, said inspectors who visited the hospital in June found evidence of patient abuse, poor record-keeping and an overall lack of supervision.

The majority of patients in state mental hospitals are ethnic minorities and they are diagnosed with more severe mental disorders than are whites at both state and local mental health centers, state officials said Wednesday in presenting new data to the first statewide conference on mental health and ethnic population growth.

California has a remarkable opportunity to turn a setback into an opportunity to correct the failure of its mental-health services to care properly for the thousands turned out of mental hospitals onto the streets in recent years. There is now an agreed blueprint. All that is missing is someone to take the lead and someone to provide the money.

Among the unmistakable signs of spring around here, ranking right up there with hay fever and rafting on the American River, are the large groups of anxious-looking people who invade the state Capitol to lobby the Legislature and governor for budget dollars. On Monday, groups promoting more spending for mental health and nursing home programs served notice that, despite the state's $2-billion revenue gap, this year will be no different.

After ordering the production of a $237,000 educational film on teen-age suicide, state officials have decided not to show it to students, saying that a suicide scene could provoke troubled teen-agers to take their own lives. Department of Mental Health administrators have ordered the film's producer, Jerry Naylor of Agoura, to surrender all prints of "Give Yourself a Chance for Life" so they can be destroyed. Naylor--a former singer for the 1950s rock 'n' roll group The Crickets--has refused to give up the 28-minute film, contending that "it can save lives" if shown in high schools across the state.