California's mental health crisis

Seven years after voters passed Proposition 63 -- the landmark legislation that was supposed to radically improve mental health care in the state -- California is facing a deepening statewide mental health crisis. As the state struggles under the weight of a lingering recession and an enormous deficit, county mental health programs are often failing to provide care for even the sickest patients. In many cases, the minimal safety net that used to exist is disintegrating.

In the absence of care, many people with mental illnesses are instead cycling in and out of jails and emergency rooms. They are receiving treatment patched together by primary care providers. Despite the optimism surrounding Proposition 63, in many counties, mental health care programs are actually worse off now than they were a decade ago, one state mental health advocate told me.

"The losses," he said, "have exceeded the gains."

For my project, I will describe why these cuts are occurring and how they are impacting people with serious mental illness and their families.