MENTAL ILLNESS SERVICES CUTS IN SAN FRANCISCO

May 11, 2004 the San Francisco Health Commissioners listening to hundreds of testimony on Mental Illness cuts in San Francisco.

The meeting was held at 101 Grove Street on the 3rd Floor in San Francisco. Cuts to the Mental Ill have been going on for the last 10 years plus - year after year cuts linked to Mental Illness have been imposed on those who need help most.

This year funds should have been added to aid those who have Mental Illness in San Francisco. Yes added.

The Health Commissioners and the Mayor of San Francisco may think that is impossible but it is possible because even now the Mayor's Office and the City and County of San Francisco are wasting money most every where.

It is a shame that San Francisco the City that knows how has allowed this to happen. We have some of the world's wealthiest pharmaceuticals companies in San Francisco and the Bay Area. We have companies like Bechtel. We have filthy rich folks like Richard Blum, Walter Shorenstein, Donald Fisher, the Gettys, others. Time these filthy rich pay their share and help those who need help most.

Every year around this time the City and County of San Francisco proclaims we have a Budget Crisis.

As soon as this happen the Budget Committee will conduct hearings all over the City and County of San Francisco. They do this on behalf of the Legislative Branch. Throughout the year the Board of Supervisors are busy dealing with issues mostly not connected with fiscal issues. Then suddenly when the month of June nears the finger is on this Budget Trigger - everything takes a fiscal tone - the world comes to an end. Chris Daly is perhaps the only sane Supervisor. The rest will bend just like that reed blowing in the wind. The worst of the vermin Sophie Maxwell. The one full of diatribe McGoldrick.

Dog and Pony shows are held all over the City and County of San Francisco and at these hearing the same people mostly who love to have their 3 minutes of fame will appear and state why they feel their "pet project " should be saved.

This is disgraceful. I would agree if a "true presentation" was given at each of the dog and pony shows - and then some real questions posed linked to the current data given - but this is not the case.

In the end the Mayor's office will do what he pleases. Those that have strings with his office will win and the rest have to lick their wounds for the rest of the year. Come this time next year - the dog and pony shows will begin and out come those who want their 3 minutes of fame! Pathetic.

Back to the Mental Illness and the Commissioners who met at 101 Grove Street in San Francisco. It is a shame that those entities that provided much needed service and need more help have to plead before these so called representatives about the sad plight they are in.

Just imagine if hundreds of mental patients are thrown out of the system that now nurtures the mentally ill and normalizes their condition at the many smaller institutions?

Imagine these mental patients attacking people, breaking the law, and causing physical and material damage - the gamut of crimes that they are not capable of knowing.

These so-called representatives, the Commissioners, must be out of their mind - think they can listen to the hundreds of people vent and then tell them go to hell! " There is nothing we can for you we are at the mercy of the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor of San Francisco".

In San Francisco we have the University of California San Francisco medical institutions. The experience of the doctors, nurses, others who deal with the illness that befalls patients that suffer from mental illness pooled together is awesome. These experts understand the history of mental sickness and the times when Ronald Reagan destroyed the system that formally institutionalized those who need institutional care.

For the last 10 years I have been following 6 patients from afar. Every single year I see the system failing them in every way. One has just to monitor the patients who go in and out on the 7th Floor of the General Hospital in San Francisco.

Experts tell us that the best care given to Mental Patients are in our Prisons. This is a crying shame. This is a shame for San Francisco, known for the humanity and compassion that we have which comes from Saint Francisco of Assisi after which this City is named for.

San Francisco is NO ordinary City and for this City to throw its mental patients on to the street to fend for them selves is inhumane.

Just like the Geneva Convention offers solace and protection to prisoners. It is time the International Community offers solace and protection to patients suffering from Mental Illness.

It is time Mayors and Heads of Hospitals are put in mental jails for not caring for those they pledge to help. Doctors take a vow and Mayors make promises but in the end it all comes to MONEY.

I say this year some how the City of San Francisco should not CUT one single cent from the budget that goes into the pool to help those who need help most - the mentally ill.

Here is San Francisco the local newspapers will write about this and that but do not have the time to investigate the mentally ill. I see so many of them and take some time to talk to them. The mentally ill come from walks of life - they all need help and care in some little fashion to make them cope with life - day to day. Some of them become good contributing citizens others work on days they feel good. Bottom line they are all children of God.

In San Francisco dogs and cats get better help and care then the patients who fall prey to mental illness. Think about that.

Often time I meet mental patients that have not eaten for days on end, have no place to go, and many of them die on the streets of San Francisco. Think about that you Heads of Hospitals, you Board of Supervisors, you heads of Departments, you so called fiscal experts - you Mayor of San Francisco.

In the interim the pharmaceuticals make billions off the mental ill. Billions if not trillions. Time these scumbags pay back.

The filthy rich like the Richard Blums, the Walter Shoresteins, the Gettys, Donald Fishers, the Haas', others who are filthy rich better fork up. If they desire to take their business out of San Francisco - the sooner the better - good riddance of people who have no heart.

Let the Mayor pay heed and give the Mentally Ill all they want and that is not too much. In the fiscal year 2003-04 the mentally ill were given a measly $158,385,407. In the fiscal year 2004-2005 the mentally ill are begging for and getting only $153,004,319.

Minus $5,381,088 shortfall. The Gettys, the Donald Fishers, the Walter Shoresteins, the Richard Blums, others filthy rich can come up with this money. If the Mayor requests the Pharmaceuticals they will fork up the money - willing. Try the MeKesson Group.

San Francisco please wakes up. As I said our dogs and cats live a better life. Our mentally ill deserve better.




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