News of the shuttering of the 76-bed Augustus F. Hawkins Mental Health Center has been met with an uproar by concerned citizens and critics of the county’s mental health system in recent weeks. The long-standing facility is slated to have its services relocated to Los Angeles Medical Center’s main campus at 2051 Marengo Street in Los Angeles as part of a reshuffling of county services, including the opening of a new state-of-the-art Behavioral Health Center.
This transfer of psychiatric inpatient services will take place during the later half of August. Foremost among the reasons for this is increasing criticism of the treatment of Los Angeles County’s citizenry deemed unable to function socially or otherwise in need of intervention by civil services.
To be fair, controversy has always swirled around the treatment of emotionally disturbed individuals and the use of psychiatric facilities within the county. These concerns vacillate between charges of abuse and neglect, especially among Black or African American individuals deemed problematic.
Similar to figures culled from the incarcerated population, people of color are disproportionately represented. According to a study from March 2024 by Disability Rights California (DRC), an estimated 35-40 percent of Blacks detained within the County Jail languish for prolonged periods prior to being transferred to mental health facilities better equipped to handle them. These include people who don’t have criminal charges pending but nonetheless are kept confined.
More specifically, Augustus Hawkins, along with LA General Hospital, has been singled out as having the highest rates of spatients being strapped down or otherwise restrained in the county, and more so than other metropolises, including New York City and San Francisco.
“… these wards have been criticized for excessively restraining patients for long periods, sometimes leading to injury and death,” stated an anonymous observer and advocate for facility oversight.
Initially, Hawkins assumed the load from LA General when its psych ward closed. These latest proceedings will exacerbate the practice of placing psychiatric patients in the already overcrowded jail and prison system. Eventually this is likely to place an additional strain on the already problematic Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLK-LA), which currently does not have a psychiatric ward.
As the current presidential administration gains momentum in the third quarter of its present iteration, federal funding is likely to dry up, adding additional economic hardship to an already beleaguered low-income community.
All of this can only diminish the questionable care administered to the region’s unfortunate masses, making for a bleak foreseeable future.
This combination of dwindling health care services within the city and the county’s ever-increasing population growth signals the continued financial and sociological tension within Southern California’s Latino and African American populace.