Advocates Question Plan to Eliminate California Mental Health Department

California mental health advocates are questioning a plan to eliminate the state’s Department of Mental Health. Rusty Selix, executive director of the Mental Health Association in California, said that a deputy director level position on mental health should be created in the Department of Health Care Services. Selix said that having a department devoted to mental health, all by itself, is an indication that it's a high priority for the state. "There's tremendous fear in the community of eliminating the Department of Mental Health, and to have nothing directly focused on that is a big concern," he said. "We're afraid of losing that attention." (California Healthline, 5/27/11)

Can this be true? Did they read the report about the suicide level in California's prison system?