MENTAL HEALTH MOVEMENT
Our services are under attack and our lives are on the line
The City of Chicago only has 12 public mental health clinics. This is not enough to meet demand, especially as the economy gets worse and more people need help. These clinics aren’t just for patients to get medicine, they are places where people have community, where people feel at home in their own neighborhoods or close by. Shutting them down means saving now on services only to spend more later when patients end up in jail, at emergency rooms or dead.
We fought off two attempts to close our clinics in 2009
The City screwed up on its billing and lost out on millions of dollars of state funding, causing them to try
to close four south side mental health clinics, all in already under-served communities. We had protests,
town hall meetings, city council hearings and even a sit in at Mayor Daley’s office to stop the clinics from
closing.
We saved the clinics but the situation is still dire...
Because of our efforts we got the city to approve $2.5 million of stimulus money to keep the clinics running. All the clinics opened back up and started seeing patients again. The Department of Health was supposed to hire 40 staff people to make sure the doors would stay open and that the billing would be done properly so we wouldn’t lose our clinics down the road.
We need to keep building the movement for our human rights!
Chicago Mental Health Clinics will stay open, Commissioner Says - WGN TV
Worry grows over clinic closings - ABC Channel 7
A Mental Health Moment - NBC Chicago News Blog
Mental Health centers on chopping block -- again - ChiTown Daily News
"More than 2,000 patients would have to find services if the clinics close. Mental health advocates are frustrated with the city's flip-flop, and met last night in Woodlawn to discuss their next steps... They oppose any talk of privatizing the clinics."
City Hall to use stimulus money to keep four mental health clinics open - Chicago Tribune
"The city will use federal economic stimulus funds as 'an interim solution while we work to find ways to keep these centers open for the long term,' Daley spokeswoman Jodi Kawada said. The administration's pledge came Tuesday, a day after the clients and their advocates wrangled a meeting with mayoral Chief of Staff Paul Volpe by staging a brief sit in at Daley's office."
Stimulus funds to keep four mental health clinics open - Chicago Sun Times
"The Daley administration agreed Thursday to use federal economic stimulus funds earmarked for community services to keep open four mental health clinics targeted for closing. Earlier this week, mental health advocates and patients held a noisy City Hall demonstration that included a brief sit-in at the mayor's office."
Federal dollars will save mental health centers - ChiTown Daily News
"The City Hall announcement late Thursday was welcome news for advocates, who have battled to keep the centers open. On Monday, they staged a protest and sit-in at Daley's office and were granted a meeting with Paul Volpe, the mayor's chief of staff."
Billing Glitch led to mental health closures - ChiTown Daily News
"The Chicago Department of Public Health lost more than $1 million in state funding by failing to fix computer problems with its billing system, public records show, sparking a funding crisis and the scheduled closure of four south Side mental health centers today"
City holds off on closing clinics - ABC Channel 7 News
"Earlier this year, Mayor Daley blamed the state for the clinic closings. On Tuesday, the mayor would not say how long the reprieve would last."
Suprise! Axed Chicago mental health clinics may stay open - Medill News
"Daley revealed plans to halt the closings at a press conferance at a point where lease for the facilities have already been cancelled."
Patients Protest over clinics closing - ABC Channel 7 News
"Activists say they've been trying to get a meeting with the mayor and his chief of staff for three months to discuss the planned closings."
Daley halts plan to close mental health clinics - CBS Channel 2 WBBM News
"One day after a noisy City Hall demonstration that included a brief sit-in at the mayor's office, Daley gave at least some measure of hope to mental health advocates who want the clinics to remain open indefinetly."
Patients Protest Closure Proposal - Southtown Star
"Throngs of protesters flocked to Chicago's Loop on Thursday to picket the plan outside the city's Department of Public Health, crying afould about officials siphoning South Side services."
Angry Crowd Presses Mason on Health Closures - ChiTown Daily News
"About 100 people attended the forum at First Presbyerian Church in Woodlawn, where mental health center patients and advocates pleaded with Alderman Willie Cochran (D-20) and Ed Smith (D-28) and Mason to save the four South Side centers, which serve about 2,000 patients."
Alderman urged to halt closing of mental health centers - Chicago Breaking News
"A packed hearing room of mental health patients and advocates today urged the Chicago City Council's health committee to stop the planned closing of four of the city's 12 mental health centers."
Mental Health Patients Crusade for Clinics - Chicago Public Radio
"Chicago aldermen got an earful Tuesday from people who depend on city-run mental health centers... Health committee chair Ed Smith says alderman brought the clinics up in a recent meeting with the governor. Smith says he's hopeful that the city can reverse the closures, which are scheduled for April 7th."
Mental health center patients plead their case - ChiTown Daily News
"Opponents of the plan to consolidate Chicago's city-run mental health centers called on City Council to stop the closures, while aldermen grilled health department head Terry Mason about the way the centers have been managed... About 100 people, many wearing pins depicting a stop sign, attended the meeting of the council's Health Committee this morning."
The Scene: "City's Growing anti-Olympics sentiment" - TimeOut Chicago
"The city's growing anti-Olympics sentiment was on broad display outside Mayor Daley's office on the fifth floor of City Hall, as protesters chanted, 'Ain't no power like the power of the people!' The demonstration, organized by Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) and the Community Mental Health Board of Chicago brought together advocates and patients angered by the city's decision to close four South Side mental-health clinics."
Nothing About Us, Without Us - LaborBeat Video covering our second protest
"We're going to fight this and we're going to fight this in an organized fashion... We can save these clinics."
Expected closing of 4 mental health centers in Chicago prompts fear, sadness in patients who consider them a lifeline - Chicago Tribune
"Mental health activists and patients have been protesting the closures, twice converging on the City Hall offices of Mayor Richard Daley, chanting and waving placards demanding that the centers be kept open."
Advocates hope to save south side mental health centers - ChiTown Daily News
"Opponents of the city's plans to close four of its twelve mental health centers are banking on a last ditch effort to save the facilities, which are scheduled to close April 7th."
Olympics vs. mental health clinics: No contest - Chicago Progressive Examiner
“For Deborah Taylor, operations director of the Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) coalition, closing health clinics is another step in the drive to displace low-income African-Americans to make room for gentrification — and all of it is connected to Mayor Daley's current pet project. "The [2016] Olympics is a catalyst to get us out of the way," she said. "We're an eyesore. So they are taking away the support system, things we need to have a community — subsidized housing, schools, and now the clinics."
Latinos Face Challenges Seeking Mental Health Care - Chicago Public Radio
Daley gets plea for mental health centers - Chicago Sun Times
"Warning that suicide and homicide rates could surge, mental health advocates and patients demanded Thursday that Mayor Daley find the $1.2 million needed to stave off closing four of the city's 12 mental health centers."