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San Mateo County Mental Health Services Boosted by Prop. 63
By
Benedict Dimapindan
November 16, 2004
With the passage of Proposition 63, mental health services statewide
know that more money is on the way, but the two uncertainties
still lingering for San Mateo County are, how much and when.
The initiative establishes a 1 percent income tax on the 25,000
to 30,000 Californians with taxable incomes of $1 million or
more to expand the state’s health programs for mentally
disabled children, adults and senior citizens.
It won approval with 53.5 percent of the vote. According to
official returns, 60.5 percent of San Mateo County voters – 147,854,
to be exact – favored the measure.
“I think Prop. 63 is a remarkable feat in this environment
in California or anywhere,” said Gale Bataille, county
director of mental health services.
“We saw so much public support because there was an increased
understanding of a real human tragedy of the last 30 years in
the failure to treat people with mental illness. One in four
families knows someone intimately who has a mental illness.”
Mental health services officials seem pleased with the fiscal
help that’s coming, but there are still some issues that
remain in the air.
According to Bataille, the state has “not yet figured
out or finalized the methodology for county allocations.” The
financial distribution depends on unmet needs and other criteria,
Bataille said.
The exact amount will likely be announced in the spring, but
the county must first develop a comprehensive plan, which will
determine the allocation, Bataille added. The plan will address
how the county intends to apportion the funding among prevention
and early intervention services and other criteria listed within
the proposition.
“I think we can expect an increase of $15-to-25 million,
but that’s just according to my crystal ball – that’s
not based on anything from the state,” Bataille said.
The final dollar amount, whenever it arrives, will be tacked
on to San Mateo County’s current approved budget of $82
million, Bataille said.
Some of that additional funding will go to East Palo Alto’s
Community Counseling Center, which is under the umbrella of county
mental health services.
The center – its office tucked away in an aisle on the
third floor of the city hall – offers services for both
the youth and adults of the community.
With a staff of 13, including three psychiatrists, the center
is one of the smaller clinics in the county. It provides psychiatric
assistance, support groups; it houses a clinical nurse; and it
works in conjunction with Psychiatric Emergency Services, according
to Information Resource Specialist Tish Showen.
It also has a euphemistic name – and for good reason too.
“Community Counseling Center is less stigmatizing, and
we’re trying to be sensitive to other ethnic groups,” Showen
said. “There is a stigma, especially in the Latin culture – and
most of the people here are Latino – that if people come
to a mental health clinic, then they must be crazy. We don’t
want people to be afraid to come to a psychiatric service center.”
Showen, who has been working at the center for nearly three
years, also said that the additional funding couldn’t have
come at a better time.
“There have been a lot of cutbacks and things have been
frozen,” Showen said.
The San Mateo Mental Health Association, Redwood City’s
Cordilleras Mental Health Center and the mental health department
at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Menlo Park have all felt
the crunch of budget constraints, Showen added.
The cutbacks that have hit East Palo Alto and the entire county
are simply a microcosm of the kinds of financial blows that all
counties throughout the state have been facing.
“We’ve had three years of cuts – every county
experienced that,” Bataille said.
Mental health services officials aren’t the only ones
applauding the measure’s passage.
The Police Chiefs Association also backed the initiative, citing
that about 20 percent of police officer’s time on duty
is spent dealing with people afflicted with a mental illness.
In addition, one-third of homeless persons are relegated to life
on the streets because of some untreated mental illness.
More than 500,000 Californians receive services each year in
the state's publicly funded mental health system, according to
the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
However, a 1998 report by the National Advisory Mental Health
Council stated that recovery rates for mental illnesses surpass
the treatment success rates for many physical illnesses, including
heart disease.
And a strong improvement in the recovery and rehabilitation
of the community’s mentally ill is something East Palo
Alto officials are hoping they’ll be able to achieve with
the new funding.
“So many groups have had funding cuts, we’re just
so happy it passed,” Showen said. “There are so many
things that will happen now – not as many homeless people
out on the streets, and institutions will get the money they
need and not get cut down.”
Contact Benedict Dimapindan at bend1@stanford.edu
