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2007-06-05 issue:

Angry about including Kings View

by Jim Compton-Schmidt, Fresno, Calif.

Print Article

I am responding to Stuart W. Showalter’s article “To the Least of Our Neighbors: The Search for Access to Mental Health Care” (April 17). Much of what Showalter says could not be argued against: 46.6 million without health-care coverage in this country sounds about right, and his extrapolation of the data for Mennonites sounds about right. The availability of quality space at Philhaven sounds like it is as it is everywhere (too few beds for the population). My primary problem comes when Showalter talks about “availability across the country.” He says, “These organizations include well established and highly respected treatment centers such as Philhaven and Penn Foundation in Pennsylvania, Brooklane in Maryland, Oaklawn in Indiana, Prairie View in Kansas and Kings View in California.”



Since I assume that much of the Showalter piece has to do with inpatient facilities, he must surely know that when referring to Kings View he is not talking about an inpatient facility. That “facility” has been closed since the early part of the 1990s, and including it in this article dealing pretty much with inpatient facilities provides me with some of my highest degree of anger about Mennonites and mental health. If Showalter does not know that Kings View Psychiatric Hospital is closed, I wonder where he is getting some of the rest of his information.



In the greater Fresno area (close to 1 million people) there are now less than 30 inpatient beds. Fresno is also a large Mennonite community on the West Coast. We would love to have some of you Easterners come and visit us—especially if you are going to write about us and mental health.

Associated Article: Health care for everyone