"I’ve written about L.A.’s mental illness crisis for almost 20 years. We have to do better"
Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez interviewed Dr. Imelda Padilla-Frausto and Dr. Ninez Ponce about building a better mental healthcare system.
Seventeen years ago this month, I met a musician who slept on L.A.'s skid row and talked about trying to get back on track and join an orchestra. Like many homeless people, he fought a daily battle with mental illness that, for him, first surfaced 35 years earlier, when he was a student at Juilliard.
As I got to know Mr. Ayers, I was shocked by how many other castoffs were struggling to survive on the streets, suffering without hope. I began writing about this shameful American reality, thinking that shining a light might spark a collective response to what is, without question, a fixable tragedy.
But nearly two decades in, little has changed.
Faculty Referenced by this Article
Director, Executive Programs in Health Policy and Management
Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, is a Professor-in-Residence with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and Community Health Sciences
Professor of Community Health Sciences & Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Research
Nationally recognized health services researcher and sociomedical scientist with 25+ years' experience in effectiveness and implementation research.
Dr. Ron Andersen is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management.
Academic Personnel Coordinator/Assistant to the Chair
Industrial Hygiene & Analytical Chemistry
Assistant Director, MPH for Health Professionals Program
EMPH Academic Program Director with expertise in healthcare marketing, finance, and reproductive health policy, teaching in the EMPH, MPH, MHA program
Dr. Michelle S. Keller is a health services researcher whose research focuses on the use and prescribing of high-risk medications.
Assistant Dean for Research & Adjunct Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences
Dr. Joseph Davey is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 20 years' experience leading research on HIV/STI services for women and children.
Dr. Hankinson is a Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and of EHS, and Chair of the Molecular Toxicology IDP
Director of Field Studies and Applied Professional Training
Assistant to the Chair & Academic Personnel Coordinator
Dr. Anne Rimoin is a Professor of Epidemiology and holds the Gordon–Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health.
Associate Professor for Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Health Sciences
Automated and accessible artificial intelligence methods and software for biomedical data science.
