FLYNN DETAILS PLAN FOR CAMARILLO HOSPITAL PATIENTS : PERMANENT CENTER URGED AFTER SITE SHUT.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

County supervisor John Flynn called on his colleagues Tuesday to take responsibility for local mentally ill and physically disabled patients who face impending eviction from Camarillo State Hospital.

In an impassioned appeal that began with a quote from a church hymnal, the veteran supervisor said the county should establish a permanent facility for patients who face an uncertain future when the 60-year-old hospital closes its doors. Flynn said an existing children's ward and surrounding 87 acres should be converted into a facility for patients from Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

But Flynn faces opposition from supervisors who say it will cost more than $500,000 a year to serve fewer than 20 patients from Ventura County.

The hospital is set to close in April in a cost-cutting measure ordered by Gov. Pete Wilson, emptying the 85 Spanish-style buildings and displacing about 700 patients to hospitals and community centers across the state. Most of the patients have already left, but families of local patients have pinned their hopes on Flynn's proposal to keep a small portion of the hospital open.

So far the proposal has taken a back seat to plans advanced by California State University, which has won widespread support to convert the hospital into the long-awaited CSU Channel Islands. Regents hope to open as early as fall of 1998, holding classes on the south side of the grounds and leasing other portions to offset high overhead costs of maintaining the 700-acre property.

Flynn said he sees no conflict with establishing a treatment facility for mentally ill patients next to the campus of a state university.

``Using a small portion of the acres to maintain the local population will not interfere,'' Flynn stated in a letter to the board. ``On the contrary, it will put in place a value that we all share: Treat all humans, regardless of their stations in life, as brothers and sisters, made in the image and likeness of God. This is a value not worth violating.''

Other supervisors, however, questioned the cost and practicality of the plan. Only three patients who currently live at Camarillo State Hospital are likely candidates for the county facility, said supervisor Judy Mikels. About 12 more patients could transfer from other institutions, but the numbers to not justify operating costs projected by the Ventura County Health Care Agency, Mikels said.

``We have the overall good of the county to deal with,'' said Mikels. ``We do have compassion, but we must weigh the overall good of the county.''

But the county could end up saving money by taking up the care of local patients, according to Stephen Kaplan, Director of the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department. It costs the county $36,000 a year to care for patients at Foothill Hospital in Sylmar, the closest residential treatment program for mentally ill and disabled patients, he said.

Depending on how much the state charges to lease the facility, the county could end up spending far less than it does to contract the service out, said Kaplan.

Patients will be transferred to inferior facilities if the county does not take a role in helping local patients, said Reva Shpiner, a mother of a patient who has remained at Camarillo State Hospital.

``I was devastated to learn Camarillo State Hospital would close,'' she said. ``We can't prevent the closing, but we can help prevent them from being put behind barbed wire.''