Mental Health Care

Judge Michael Tynan stepped down from the bench and congratulated five criminal defendants who had turned their lives around. His voice cracked as he told them how proud he was, and then he threw a party and passed out pieces of chocolate cake, with hugs all around. In Orange County Superior Court, a beaming Judge Wendy Lindley congratulated felons on their successful reforms and then led the cheers, with spectators and court personnel joining in.

A mentally ill man who broke his neck in a Glenn County jail cell and is now a quadriplegic has filed suit in federal court, alleging jail officials violated his constitutional rights by denying him mental health care and using excessive force to subdue him with Taser guns and pepper spray. In addition to monetary damages, the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S.

When Little Tokyo Lofts opened in downtown a few years ago, they were billed as the antidote to suburban living. Press materials lured buyers to the former Westinghouse industrial building by promising luxury lofts in an about-to-be-gentrified "vibrant neighborhood" -- which just happened to be at the edge of skid row. And buyers bought the condos, near the corner of 5th and San Pedro streets, hoping that the upscale amenities that had surfaced in other parts of town would follow them there.

Wider use of antidepressants and other prescription medications has reduced the role of psychotherapy, once the defining characteristic of psychiatric care, according to an analysis published today. The percentage of patients who received psychotherapy fell to 28.9% in 2004-05 from 44.4% in 1996-97, the report in Archives of General Psychiatry said.

Los Angeles County's Board of Supervisors passed a 5-year, $62-million plan Tuesday to improve mental health services, taking a step toward fulfilling a 5-year-old settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of children in foster care. Advocates for foster children hope the plan will improve access to mental health care, a chief objective of a 2003 settlement reached after allegations of serious shortfalls in the screening and treatment of children in the county's foster care system.

Los Angeles County's chief mental health official said Tuesday that he is working to reduce the number of times his staff forwards emergency assistance calls involving the mentally ill to police, a practice that has grown over the last year as fewer hospital beds have been available to treat such patients. Marvin J. Southard, called before the Board of Supervisors after news reports highlighted the problem, told the board he is in talks with county health officials to find better options.

In a move to improve mental healthcare in the troubled juvenile justice system, Los Angeles County probation officials are asking that a 70-bed hospital in Sylmar be built to house and treat the most seriously ill youths in custody. The facility, which would cost an estimated $5 million to $10 million, would make it possible to transfer incarcerated juveniles now held in 24-hour isolation into a clinical setting, said Probation Chief Robert Taylor.

In the ongoing flap over prison overcrowding in California and what to do about it, little consideration has been given to inmates such as Stephan Lilly. I wrote about the Los Angeles man late last year, when his conviction on charges stemming from a scuffle with a security guard were counted as a third strike. Despite a years-long battle with schizophrenia, and the fact that one of the three strikes was a threat that involved no physical contact, Lilly got 25 to life.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a Los Angeles federal judge's injunction that had required California to provide foster children with more intensive mental health services. The order was issued last year by U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz, who found that many foster children were not receiving medically necessary services.

FIRST-TIME antidepressant users might want to consider Ma Bell for therapy. Depressed patients who received telephone therapy in addition to antidepressant medication were found to be less depressed after 18 months than those who received antidepressants alone, according to a report to be published in next month's Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.