Camarillo State Closure Put on Hold

Parents battling to spare Camarillo State Hospital from closure won a partial victory Wednesday when a judge ordered the mental institution to stay open until state officials can assure that a handful of remaining patients will not be harmed when the facility shuts down.

In issuing the preliminary injunction, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne said it was not her intent to keep the hospital open, but rather to ensure that certain clients will receive the same or comparable treatment when they are moved to other facilities.

The order is expected only to apply to about four patients, and as such should have little practical effect on the hospital’s closure, scheduled for June 30.

Nevertheless, Wayne said she was swayed by arguments that those patients could suffer irreparable harm if transferred without assurances that their treatment programs would continue uninterrupted at other facilities.

“I’m not trying to keep the hospital open forever, but if it cost the state some money to save some lives, so be it,” Wayne told attorneys at the hearing in Los Angeles. “I’m not going to let the hospital close until I know everyone is safe.”

With Wayne making no move to block the hospital’s closure on a long-term basis, however, California State University officials said they may soon be able to restart work on a proposal to convert the mental hospital into Ventura County’s first public university.

Those plans were put on hold because of the lawsuit filed by two parent groups. But Handel Evans, president of the developing Cal State Channel Islands campus, said Wednesday he is anxious to start the process again.

“What it means, I think, is that we can talk with more confidence that the hospital is going to be available,” Evans said.

“I understand that the hospital is not closing until the court is convinced the state can provide an adequate level of care, and I’m assuming the state will do that,” he added. “But the important thing in the ruling today are the judge’s comments that it would not be appropriate to stop the closure of the hospital altogether.”

State officials said Wednesday they already have addressed many of the concerns raised by Wayne, and that they hope to reach full compliance with her order in a matter of weeks.

The injunction forbids certain clients from being moved until their program plans are analyzed and they are assured of receiving the same or comparable treatment at other facilities.

It also requires facilities to draft a plan to deal with the trauma that some patients might experience as they are transferred.

The parties are scheduled to return to court June 16, but state officials said they hope to have the matter settled well before then.

“It may involve some things we’ve already done where we just need to submit some documentation,” said Michael Mount, chief counsel for the state Department of Developmental Services.

“But if we’re only talking about a limited number of people, we can still proceed with the bulk of the transfers,” Mount added. “The significance [of the order] may be very small to us.”

Parents of state hospital patients had sought a temporary court order blocking the closure and all transfers of developmentally disabled and mentally ill clients until a hearing could be held on the larger issues.

For some, the court action comes too late.

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About 300 patients already have left the state hospital this year, dropping its overall population to about 400.

Reva Shpiner’s mentally ill daughter is among them, having transferred last month to a facility in Sylmar.

“The whole lawsuit is predicated on irreparable harm and irreparable harm is being done daily to my daughter,” said Shpiner, a Camarillo resident. “But this comes too late for us.”

Regardless of whether the state hospital closes as scheduled, the larger issues raised in the lawsuit are still likely to head to trial, perhaps six to eight months from now.

“It is a sense of real victory for my clients,” said Ron Gold, a Calabasas attorney who brought the lawsuit on behalf of parents. “I think this is very good news for them.”