Less than five months after its founding, the Consumer Advocacy Coalition held the first of what it promised will be a series of town halls on improving mental health services in Santa Barbara County. If Wednesday night’s turnout is any indication, the coalition will be a powerful advocate for years to come.
More than 120 people, including Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum and City Councilwoman Helene Schneider, packed the Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery to hear from a panel of experts involved in mental health issues. The Rev. Mark Asman, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, moderated the discussion, which included Ann Detrick, director of the county Department of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services, and Dr. Edwin Feliciano, the agency’s medical director; Silvia Perez, peer recovery specialist with Partners in Hope in Santa Maria; Suzanne Riordan, co-founder of Families ACT!; Consumer Advocacy Coalition founder Roger Thompson; and J.T. Turner, executive director of Phoenix of Santa Barbara.
Many of the speakers noted the prevalence of mental illness in families and the community, but they lamented the lack of knowledge and awareness, whether intentional or not.
“The community lacks an understanding of what mental illness is,” Feliciano said. “We need to educate ourselves on what services are most effective.”
Thompson expanded on that theme, describing a couple of recent coalition presentations he made to local organizations.
“One guy told me, ‘You come off as smart and articulate. I think you need to dumb it down,’” Thompson said, before dead-panning, “He obviously didn’t know me very well.”
But the comment, according to Thompson, illustrated the role the coalition can and will play. He gestured to the scores of business sponsors listed on the banner behind him and added that the coalition had raised more than $7,000 in the last two weeks alone.
“That tells me that the community sees the need, and views us as the vehicle to affect change,” he said.
Thompson can speak with some authority on the issue as he was among those whose treatment programs were reduced and reorganized as a result of the funding cuts. He resolved to do something about it and founded the nonprofit coalition July 5.
Since then, the organization has hosted weekly meetings so those with mental illness can share information on treatment, physicians and other necessary resources. The free meetings are held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Sundays at Unity House, 1626 Santa Barbara St. Meanwhile, a second town hall has been scheduled for the North County on March 18 at the new Santa Maria Main Public Library, 110 E. Cook St.
Despite the hopeful tone, there were undercurrents of concern about those with mental illness falling through the cracks while public and private agencies grappled with reduced funding. Public questions dealt with treatment allegedly denied to a County Jail inmate, a child who repeatedly has tried to commit suicide, and the state budget crisis.
Also brought up in the question-and-answer session was the county’s potential obligation for as much as $31.5 million in Medi-Cal overbilling for mental-health services clients. Acknowledging that the figure was “substantial,” Detrick said the state investigation was ongoing and that ADMHS nonetheless has to “put it on the books as a potential liability.”
The event — whose lead sponsors were Noozhawk, The Fund for Santa Barbara and Starbucks — ended on a positive note. The Fund for Santa Barbara presented the coalition with a grant check for $3,000 and an impromptu passing of the hat collected another $656.
Click here for more information on the Consumer Advocacy Coalition, call 805.698.5166 or e-mail help@joincac.org.
Write to wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com
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