Clinging to hope and home

Elected and appointed officials said the psychological trauma spawned by home foreclosures in Merced County poses a serious challenge, but that recent cuts to state mental health funding makes treatment hard to get.

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani (D-Livingston), who represents Merced County, said she planned to call State Sen. Leader Darryl Steinberg Friday afternoon to ask if any emergency funds are available to help homeowners struggling with mental health problems.

She plans to ask Steinberg "if there is an emergency fund so that we can do something in the near term to have enough counselors available," Galgiani said.

She also urged residents struggling with stress, anxiety and depression to reach out for help:

"There's a stigma about reaching out and asking for help. There shouldn't be." She added. "I think that in Merced County, we're in depression, people are hurting, people should not be ashamed."

The Sun-Star asked Galgiani and other elected and appointed officials to talk about possible solutions to the mental health crisis outlined in the series "Houses of Blues" that appeared in the newspaper Friday and today.

"I told HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan about that — foreclosure and mental health, about suicide and depression," Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) said Friday night. "I told him about baby dolls left out in the bushes as families rush to leave. I told him that it doesn't matter if the baby doll was put there by a hurricane or the foreclosure man. Your child's baby doll is still out on the sidewalk."

Cardoza said he's so upset with the lack of economic help to stem the housing crisis here that he has taken the "unusual step" among D.C. bureaucrats of becoming extremely outspoken.

"When I come back home and meet with my constituents, I can see the stress they're under," he said. "I look in their eyes and I see what they're feeling. And I know how hard it is for them."

As more residents seek help because they're losing their homes, Merced County — with the highest foreclosure rate in the state — lost $1.1 million in state mental health funds last year. It is braced for more cuts in coming months.

Some elected officials warned that increased state aid is unlikely.

"I think the most important thing that we can do is pass national health insurance reform, which provides health insurance for all Americans," said the chairman of the state Assembly Health Committee, Dave Jones, D-Sacramento.

He said that "it would be a big mistake" to make further cuts in state mental health funds for counties. "The problem is that without the voters' willingness to support new revenues, the state doesn't have the resources to expand."

Merced County's mental health chief said Friday that he knows exactly what he needs most to help homeowners cope with the stresses of foreclosure. "Staffing. Just having the staff to provide services," said Manuel Jimenez, director of a mental health department attempting to counsel a growing number of depressed and anxious patients in a county with the highest foreclosure rate in California.

Like other counties, however, Merced County has suffered severe cuts in mental health funding. Jimenez said that after losing nine counselors to budget cuts, his remaining counselors are seeing more patients, a tough job in the best of circumstances.

"Imagine coming in at 8 a.m. and hearing people's terrible stories, and an hour after that you're hearing more terrible stories, and an hour after that, someone else's woes," Jimenez said.