Mental Health Clinics

Nearly a year after psychiatric social worker Robbyn Panitch was stabbed to death at a Santa Monica clinic, her parents criticized the city attorney's office for not prosecuting clinic operators and county mental health officials for failing to take safety measures.

The waiting room at the West Valley Mental Health Center was empty Friday. Boxes filled with medical files covered the floor in an inner office, and a sign informed visitors that the doors would close permanently at 5:30 p.m.

About 500 people at a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday appeared to pick up a crucial vote in their efforts to avert the closure of health and mental health clinics, at least temporarily. Supervisor Deane Dana said he is leaning toward providing the necessary support to keep the clinics open until Oct. 1, in the hope that the state will provide additional money to continue operations for the rest of the year.

When Los Angeles County supervisors start wading through this year's two-inch-thick budget proposal Wednesday, the key battle will be over whether health, mental health and welfare programs will be cut to preserve other areas of county spending. On Monday, county Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon submitted a revised $9.6-billion spending plan that recommends cuts in those areas, despite a state windfall that supervisors had hoped would spare reductions.

After reading the article about the agony and suffering that is being caused by the closure of many of the county mental health clinics, I have feelings of shame and frustration ("Mental Health Clinic Closures Create Turmoil," Part I, June 10). Shame that I am living so well while these unfortunate people are being denied the help that they have come to depend on, and frustration that there is so little that I can do about it. I am doing the obvious thing in a situation like this.

The state Supreme Court refused Wednesday to grant an emergency stay that would have kept open the doors of the Wilmington Mental Health Center, leaving Los Angeles County officials poised to complete a shutdown of the psychiatric facility. In a one-paragraph ruling, the justices denied a petition by legal aid attorneys, who claimed that the county is violating a court order by terminating services at the Wilmington clinic--one of three outpatient centers targeted to close. County officials last week halted psychiatric services at the Wilmington center and said they would transfer the clinic's more than 120 patients to other mental health facilities.

Citing safety problems, not economic necessity, Los Angeles County officials Friday shut down the first of three mental health clinics that they have targeted for closure. As the Wilmington Mental Health Center shut its doors to clients, lawyers representing its mentally ill patients petitioned the state Supreme Court to block the clinic's closing.

Citing safety problems, not economic necessity, Los Angeles County officials Friday shut down the first of three mental health clinics that they have targeted for closure. As the Wilmington Mental Health Center shut its doors to clients, lawyers representing its mentally ill patients petitioned the state Supreme Court to block the clinic's closing.