Long after LA's mental health chief quit, pressures he faced still shape the agency
LOS ANGELES — A 2017 trip to observe a celebrated Italian mental health system made believers out of a group of Los Angeles County and nonprofit leaders.
Treatment in the city of Trieste targeted the whole person — not just the illness — and services were available around the clock. Psychiatrists made house calls, families were deeply involved with care, and no one sat in trash in front of storefronts.
The visiting officials were so united in their mission to import the model to Los Angeles, they called themselves the “Tribe.”
But relations strained as the purity of the idea collided with real-world challenges. Solidarity morphed into finger-pointing. Six years after the original visit, and four years after the state awarded $116 million to launch a Trieste-inspired pilot program in Hollywood, not a single dollar has hit the streets. The project, yet to launch, is under revision.
Dr. Jonathan Sherin, the director of Los Angeles County’s Department of Mental Health at the time, was a charter member of the Tribe. Shortly before stepping down as
