Mental Cruelty

San Francisco's mental health crisis, Forster says, has been brought about by the mayor's flat budget and salary savings mandates. "The cutbacks have made it very difficult, and at times impossible, to provide good quality service at [the city's] mental health clinics," Forster says.

If city money alone is not enough to fix the failure of the nation's overall approach to mental health treatment, it can go a long way toward making sure that San Francisco's progressive mental health programs do not continue to collapse. Mental illness may always be with us, but experience shows that its effects can be softened and diminished -- that people can literally be saved -- when a proper mix of medication and caring is made available to those who need it most.Michael Wise and Susan Owsley are recovering schizophrenics who got the right kind of help, and got off the street.

The mayor's secret budget cuts will make sure that doesn't happen anymore.