March 11, 2009 – Mental-health advocates and community activists made a last attempt yesterday to gain support from the City Council’s Health Committee to stop the closure of four Southside clinics.
The Back of the Yards’, Beverly/Morgan Park, Greater Grand/Mid-South and Woodlawn clinics will be closed on April 7 because of a $1.2 million cut in state funds.
Critics of the plan said it would cause “tremendous hardships” for over 6,500 clients who seek treatment from the city’s current 12 clinics. A city official said the four would be consolidate with the city’s remaining eight.
Patients expressed worry about having to travel further and losing bonds with current staff members that have, in some cases, taken years to build.
One the 75 patients and activists who waited over an hour to testify about the fallout the changes would create was Fred Friedman, with his blue shirt that read: “I’m one of those people.” Suffering from a degenerative bone disease and mental illness, coupled with homelessness, has made his recovery arduous. (click here to hear his story)
“We don’t respond very well to change,” said Friedman. “You might not think it’s not difficult to go an extra six miles… but I’m here to tell you… if someone told me that I had to go three more miles or if I had to go see a new psychiatrist I just wouldn’t do it.”
Reminding the committee of their public duty to serve, he said: “It is your obligation, your job, to take care of those of us who can’t take care ourselves.”
Ald. Ed Smith (28th), health committee chairman, after the meeting defended the health department’s decision, saying he believed they have been “diligent” in trying to find funding.
Smith met with Gov. Pat Quinn on February 23 to discuss funding and said he will continue to lobby Springfield.
However, several activists contend a budget shortfall is not the reason for city’s decision to close the clinics.
The Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers sent letters to the committee requesting the clinics’ budgets be submitted for review before making a final decision.
Referencing a 2008 study, Rev. Linda Forbes, a member of the coalition said, the report showed clinic workers generated more income than their [billing] costs to the city.
“For fairness, it’s just not good to shut down a money making operation,” said Forbes.
Anne Irving, director of public policy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31 called testimony given by Chicago’s Public Health Commissioner, Dr. Terry Mason, a “skewed version.”
Irving asked the board to press Mason to find out why the city received a 15 percent cut in state funding when other governmental services agencies received a 3 or 4 percent cut.
She said because patients are showing resistance to going into certain communities for services, there is a potential to lose future state funds.
“If we lose clients, we won’t be able to bill the state for all the money we’re getting now,” said Irving.
In his closing statements, Mason said he has lobbied in Springfield to maintain mental health services but the problems stem from a larger source.
“The problem is our system, nationally, is broken, “ said Mason. “And it is not going to be within the purview of the city of Chicago, to fix it.”
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