I'm interested in the history of the delivery of mental health services in California, so I was happy that Muriel Karp came to see me today.
Ms. Karp started working for the State Department of Mental Health in 1956 as a psychiatric social worker. At that time, according to Ms. Karp, she and the others in her profession did the after care services for patients who were coming out of state hospitals.
Ms. Karp said the department had a complete network of psychiatric social workers throughout the state that covered every patient that was discharged, whether the patient was living in his or her own home or in a group home.
It was Ms. Karp’s and her colleagues’ job to hook up their patients with any resources they needed. They provided a complete blanket of services, including family counseling, helping with employment, connecting their patients with social agencies, and seeing that they got their physical needs met.
They also provided counseling to help families to accept the patient's illness, and they helped with post-hospital adjustment with the family.
These psychiatric social workers had no limitations on what services they provided. If the need was there, they met it, and the services were provided at the level of each patient's need. Basically they did whatever it took. It's called case management now, Ms. Karp said.
When she left the department in 1970, the depopulation of the hospitals had not started, but the process was in place. When she returned to the department in 1985, the state hospitals had been closed. The care of people who had resided in the state hospitals had been turned over to counties who had exceptional people working on the care of patients, but were underfunded.
A lot of people who had been patients were falling through the cracks. Ms. Karp is still very concerned about people with mental illness who are not getting services.
The AB 34 programs, and the programs we hope to provide under the initiative, look very much like the "blanket of services" that Ms. Karp described. If you have stories from the 1950's to the present, please comment. I would love to hear from you.
I really think it's necessary to sell this thing on the basis of its extremely low real cost to the taxpayer. Based on the NY/NY study, and guessing at about 17 million tax payers, I make the cost per tax payer per week at 11 cents, and probably even less. Even then, you're gonna make the rich pay it. So voters need to know how cheap it is. Voters, bless their dingy little hearts, hate taxes, as I'm sure you know. That antipathy needs to be overcome.
Posted by: Phaedrus | March 25, 2004 at 07:05 AM
Phaedrus, you make an excellent point. We have a finance person on the campaign who can do these kinds of calculations, and I'll get some of those figures and include them in future posts and in campaign materials as they are developed. Thank you very much for your post.
Posted by: Darrell Steinberg | March 28, 2004 at 07:02 AM
I enjoy reading through this informal place. I will surely visit you again to see if anything new appears on it.
Good luck for the future.
Posted by: Hillary Joan | November 03, 2004 at 01:59 AM
Thank you, thank you for passing Prop 63! My 22 year old son was diagnosed with mental illness this year. In our County we have the STAR program which does help mentally ill get Support and Treatment After Release. It is now funded through a wonderful organization, but needs more funding to help more people. It is a model program and my son has been one of the lucky ones who is receiving the care and help he needs. Now many others can get what they need as well.
Posted by: Jacqueilne Janssen | November 03, 2004 at 06:54 AM
Just surfed in and found this really interesting place here. A lot of good stuff for everybody. Go on like this and i will surely visit your site again sometime.
Posted by: Susani | May 01, 2005 at 02:03 AM