Department of Mental Health (DMH) – where were you at?? Ooh. You forgot to call, and we shouldn’t have had to holla!
Santa Monica experienced a wholly avoidable example of institution – community disconnection as reported by SMDP, the Los Angeles Times and lamented by our mayor. As the coverage explained, this swirled around the scheduled opening of a residence on Ocean Avenue for those living with severe mental illness. It will be paid for by a state-funded program intended to rapidly house these members of the community. I do think these kinds of resources are sorely needed and should be a robust point in a full continuum of care that is certainly important for Santa Monica. The dust-up gained legitimate sway because the location, design, staffing, security, compatibility should have been explained, discussed, and negotiated with all partners. That did not happen here in this instance. Key people had opined on this, including Supervisor Horvath who stated there “has been inexcusably little engagement around this proposal.” She is “disappointed by the lack of proper communication with Santa Monica residents.” Mayor Negrete has been quoted as saying “we never got a heads up or a community meeting either.”
Now that someone or some people dropped a dime or called in some favors, the project has been pulled by Supervisor Horvath. Big props to her. That said, we should not simply accept the reprieve without getting the answers and accountability for this glaring mess. It’s my guess someone had the ‘juice, as Lizzo would sing. The remarkable omission of an important step in full community engagement needs full explanation and accountability; the latter a “value” of DMH. Let me make sure you know the full skinny on what is supposed to drive the work of DMH. The stated DMH Values – Integrity, Respect, Accountability, Collaboration, Dedication, Transparency, and Quality and Excellence.
There are and were plenty of points of contact for engagement. Let’s start with the Behavioral Health Commission (formerly the Mental Health Commission and before that Mental Health Advisory Board). This is the countywide, appointed group to advise our supervisors and the department on all things ‘mental health.’ Several seats on the Commission are for our 3rd Supervisorial District. There are eight Service Areas (SA), each with a Service Area Leadership Team (SALT) intended to “provide LACDMH with information, advice and recommendations” regarding local systems, needs, most effective resources and two-way communication. Santa Monica is in SA 5, has its SALT5 group that meets monthly. Where were they in this mix? Go to https://dmh.lacounty.gov for more information. These are just the entities in the DMH system that we could have tapped into. Let us not forget our mayor, city council, city manager, relevant departments, invested Commissions.
There are burning questions to ask. Honest answers should help to avoid this kind of kerfuffle in the future. We should be grateful that the Supervisor executed a smackdown, the partners had to step back, and the city avoided an institutional shakedown. Now that we can exhale, we should breathe again and understand how and why this happened. Don’t take “we dunno” as an acceptable response. Treat finger-wagging or pointing as unacceptable. Lest it happen again. I hate to say it but it’s true, it’s happened before.
I would argue that a vision without inclusive planning is a hallucination. It is kinda like riding a blind horse towards a cliff, in this case, the ridge at the edge of Palisades Park. When you are holding town halls after you have burned your bridges, a fire usually starts in your own britches. Please indulge my metaphors.
“It is not what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.” Moliere
Karen S. Gunn, Ph.D. Gunn Consulting Group Dr. Gunn is a community and organizational psychologist, member of the Santa Monica Bay Area Human Relations Council, former chair of the Santa Monica Social Services Commission, former member of the Venice Family Clinic Board of Directors. She has been a LAC-DMH consultant for over 30 years.