"There is not enough space in this newspaper to describe the many ways in which people with mental illness are treated as second-class citizens," writes Nathan Fairman, an emergency room doctor who says people with a mental illness are treated differently from those brought in with chest pains. Fairman's editorial in the Sacramento Bee described a local situation but one that extends throughout the state where budget cuts have slashed treatments, closed hospitals, eliminated services. The result has increased reliance on emergency rooms for people with a mental illness. Often their care resembles that of 40 years ago, when people were given a few days worth of medicine and sent out of hospitals, only to return for lack of care.

In Sacramento County, where the state's capitol is located, psychiatric beds have been cut, and services for 4,500 adults have been eliminated at clinics . Fairman writes budget cuts "constitute a slow disaster that shamefully illuminates the ways we treat and fail to treat adults with mental illness." The governor's office is providing no help. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Gov. Schwartznegger just vetoed a bill "which would have mandated most health insurers to provide coverage for all diagnosable mental illnesses."

In the rest of the country, similar underfunding exists. In Nevada, advocates are outraged that funds were scrapped for crisis intervention. Last week a teenager was killed by police whom they believe were ill prepared to deal with an episode of bipolar disorder. And last week the Associated Press reported mental health centers closing in Maryland.