Behavioral Health

This letter is being written to express my own feelings as a psychologist / program specialist for Ventura Unified School District, as well as a concerned citizen of this county. The subject is the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department, specifically, Children’s Services.

I have worked closely with a number of Behavioral Health professionals, including social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and varying levels of management, for 15 years. Our work has been a collaborative effort between Ventura County Behavioral Health, Ventura Unified School District and the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools to address the needs of children and families with varying levels of emotional and behavioral disabilities.

This effort has resulted in what has become known as the Ventura Model for service delivery. It addresses the educational, social, emotional and family needs of identified clients. As a result we have been able to provide services to children in less-restrictive settings than before the Ventura Model was established.

Over the years, we established numerous school-based treatment programs with the assistance of Behavioral Health Children’s Services. Social workers and psychologists have been assigned to these programs and their involvement has been invaluable. The model has been highly successful and we have substantially reduced the number of children needing residential care for educational reasons. Obviously, this has reduced costs to the county.

This legally mandated partnership has enabled a pooling of resources to the benefit of all. The level of professionalism of the social workers and psychologists in the schools has been outstanding.

I am extremely disturbed by the amount of negative publicity the Behavioral Health Department has been receiving. As a result, morale appears to be at an all-time low and good people with valuable experience are leaving. I would hope that the past collaborative effort at meeting the intent of the law will continue and hope that there continues to be a commitment by Ventura County Behavioral Health to maintain these necessary services. With all the negative press, I would like to formally state that my 15 years of experience working with the agency has been very positive. I hope that commendations and continued support can be given to those people from Children’s Services. The school district, and my fellow psychologists, have greatly appreciated their efforts.

SHERI SCHOENWALD

Ventura