Group Fights Cuts to Mental Health Funds

After meeting with Ventura County Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon on Thursday, advocates for the mentally ill said they will launch a campaign to abolish the long-standing practice of transferring money earmarked for mental health services to other county budgets.

Concerned that millions of dollars have been shifted away from mental health programs in recent years, nine of the 11 board members from the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Ventura County met with Mahon to review the financing practices.

Mahon confirmed the legality in shifting up to 10% of a special trust fund designed to treat the mentally ill within the mental health, social services and Ventura County Medical Center budgets, said Ed Nani, president of the alliance.

Some of the money ended up in the county’s general fund, according to one county official.

After Thursday’s meeting, alliance members vowed to change that practice.

“It’s morally and ethically wrong to take money from the mentally ill,” said Lou Matthews, an alliance member and the group’s founding president. “The practice should be stopped. They’re taking away from the most disenfranchised of our population. People who can’t fight for themselves. It’s easy to do, but it’s wrong.”

Over the past six years, about $4 million of the so-called realignment funds have been shifted from mental health to other county budgets, according to Mahon.

“It doesn’t matter where the money goes, the practice just needs to be stopped,” added Nani.

Members said they will lobby supervisors to abolish the present system and will try to halt the $1.5 million in mental health funds projected to be transferred this fiscal year.