In a short-sighted move that will only result in larger bills for the city down the road, Chicago is shutting down half of its 12 mental health clinics. The mental health clinics serve lower income families, and those who can least afford to pay for behavioral healthcare services.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided to shutter 6 of the city’s 12 clinics in his 2012 budget, after Gov. Quinn’s budget cuts to the state budget drastically reduced state payments for mental health services across Illinois.
Illinois, like many states, usually finds it easiest to cut public mental health services first, because mental health has few lobbyists that work on behalf of the population most affected — the poor.
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Multiple points to this story, but here are 2 that stand out to me: first, as long as a sizeable majority of the mental health population do not vote, neither Republicans nor Democrats do not care about this portion of our population; and second, no one in political circles learned anything from the Giffords shooting last year, not that having more clinics could have averted the tragedy, but less certainly would not help it either.
Finally, and this is strictly a personal opinion as a citizen and not a doctor, the Democrats are so hypocritical in their false campaign to paint the Republicans as the party as only interested in the wealthy. Not that I have any interest in Republican affairs as that party is bankrupt morally and ethically, but to read this story involving an Obama benefactor really burns me up.
Yes, finances are finite, and someone will have to feel pain. But, why the most vulnerable? I guess we hope no repeats of history. And, hopefully other big cities do not echo such poor choices!
This shouldn’t be like this. Not all families in Chicago could afford high paying institutions to send their mentally ill family member. Now a days people are just appalled with money. All they think is gaining with reconsidering the fact that others need some beneficial help.
I am from Australia and the same thing is occurring here. But it’s cuts across the board to all social services, including education, hospitals, funds for the disabled etc. The working class takes the brunt of the financial crisis while the banking institutions have billions, no trillions to bail them out with no prosecutions made for outright fraud in many cases.
The money is there. I was reading stats re America pre the 2008 crash; even then the bottom 40% 0f American wage earners had a miserly 0.2% share of total wealth.
You cannot have a society run for profit dominated by a few oligarchs-many of who are now being recognized as narcissistic and sociopathic.
The only answer is full democratic control of society by those that produce all value and all wealth–we the workers. There is another massive global crash about to occur, are we supposed to take even more cuts and lose more jobs.
My best friend suicided last year because she had borderline personality disorder and I could not get her competent psychiatric intervention. She had a difficult disorder, but her death was avoidable and needless and she is one of many such tragedies that occur every day.
I care about people no matter where they come from Australians, Americans, Chinese, were are all brothers and sisters and human beings. Just like the corporations we need to unite globally against the rule of capital and base human activity on human need. I would much rather get up in the morning knowing that whatever I do is going to be of benefit to my fellow man rather than some dirt bag like Rupert Murdoch–then no one will fall through the cracks (or get swept down the drain more like it).
We have science, technology and resources to feed the world several times over and provide a high standard of living for all. How many people are out of work that are willing to work? And why can’t they work-they want the goods they make etc–they can’t work because the capitalists have hit the wall and can’t make a profit out of them, so they throw them on the scrap heap. It’s madness.—and it’s all about politics whether we like it or not.
I put up the following website that’s only political orientation is uniting the workers, there are no adds, no vested interests, its funded by donations of workers, just like you and me. And they are campaigning in the US elections–not with view to win seats in parliament, that would never be tolerated, but to educate and explain to workers what they can do for themselves so as to receive the benefits of their labor.
They are just a group of people working worldwide (often for no remuneration whatsoever) because they care. Charity doesn’t work, it’s not the answer and never will be.
I realize that the website may be censored, but how do we defend ourselves if we do not have a focal point where we can unite and discuss these issues. And that’s what this site does. It gives out all the statistics on closures, whose getting the money and the machinations that go on behind closed doors every day that directly affect the lives of us all—including here in Australian. We just had a Prime Minister removed without a vote because he would not fall into line with US Afghan policy.
I put up the site so workers can read and decide for themselves–there is no one standing in the elections that represent their interests, especially the marginalized–the disabled, mentally ill, immigrants who are treated as worthless trash, just like my best friend. Her life was worth nothing to them, but she meant everything to me and I miss her every second of every day–her name was Rachael, and for all the Rachaels of the world we need to end this terrible barbarism.
With fraternal love
David Dieni
Melbourne Australia
Website http://www.wsws.org
It is a site dedicated to the workers and their travails and hardships-that’s its only orientation
Website wsws.org
>>> How Dr. Bechara Choucair can make such a claim at the same time a city of nearly 3 million people will have only half its clinics is astounding. With just six clinics operating, that means a single clinic will have to serve a population of 500,000. We’d love to hear how cutting staff and physical service locations will actually result in “expanding access.” <<<
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/04/17/chicago-closing-half-its-mental-health-clinics/
INCLUDED IN A LONGER REPORT HERE……
http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/politics/the_fierce_urgency_of_the_ment.php
……. IS A FIFTY-THERAPISTS LETTER (text below) TO THE CHICAGO CITY COUNCIL AND MEDIA, WHICH ADDRESSES YOUR BASIC QUESTION – HOW THE COMMISSIONER COULD POSSIBLY CLAIM TO BE JUSTIFYING THE "CONSOLIDATION"
"Perhaps Rahm could redefine mental health as infrastructure and include it in his new private bank….. The Emanuel Administration has prevented any hearings from taking place in order to avoid public scrutiny of the plan, which has come under fire even from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart"……
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/cook-county-jail-a-mental_n_1291851.html
http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/county-jail-a-large-mental-ward-dart/
"On Tuesday, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sent this letter to the city council signed by 50 clinicians" :
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THE FIFTY THERAPISTS LETTER
We the undersigned believe the City of Chicago's Mental Health Centers should be preserved and strengthened. We base our belief on the following considerations:
Citizens of the City of Chicago are entitled to a continuation of reliable public health clinics that have been in place for decades, especially when private providers have sometimes been less reliable in providing consistent and affordable treatment.
This applies even more so in light of imminent State reductions in what Medicaid providers will be reimbursed for, assuming there are even providers accepting it.
We reject the glib recommendations of the Civic Federation that uninsured treatment recipients can just tough it out for two years at our understaffed clinics. At that point, arguably, they will all receive insurance under the Affordable Health Care Act. However, there are estimates that as many as 30% of low-income individuals will still not qualify.
We are disappointed that a meaningful debate on the value and viability of the City clinics has been prevented by Commissioner Choucair's narrative. He has repeatedly insisted that the closure of the clinics does not represent an initial stage toward privatization, despite unambiguous statements by the Civic Federation and Mayor Emanuel that the City need not provide clinical services that can be provided at a lower cost elsewhere.
There's something Orwellian in the assurance that decimating services will in fact enhance them. One deceptive example is the contention that closing six clinics and reducing the mental health budget by millions will magically "enhance service." Another is his insistence that the initiation of a Request for Proposals (RFP) will result in the delivery of $500,000 for psychiatric services, while omitting the reality that this is the first step toward the privatization of public employee jobs. An obvious question: Wouldn't it have been simpler to hire new psychiatrists instead of leaving psychiatric vacancies unfilled for two years?
When the Commissioner is repeatedly asked about the future of CDPH mental health clinics, he disingenuously says he has been consulting with partners and consumer advocates. When he told the City Council that the consolidation of the clinics was motivated by a desire to improve efficiency and effectiveness, he conveniently neglected to mention that the laying off of long-term experienced personnel would create overwhelming caseloads for the remaining clinicians, negating his assurance of improved services.
At a recent presentation, provided to Rogers Park residents at the request of Alderman Joe Moore, the Commissioner insisted a system-wide drop off in clinician productivity could be reversed by doubling or tripling the caseloads of remaining clinicians not scheduled for layoffs.
Unfortunately he omitted to mention that the productivity freefall was accelerated due to his passivity in filling psychiatric vacancies. He refused to follow the advice of the CDPH psychiatric staff to advertise in psychiatric journals and did nothing to alleviate the fear on the part of potential applicants that centers would soon be closing.
In hindsight it is easy to see that the center closings, the layoffs and the inability to hire psychiatrists constitute collateral damage, resulting from the implementation of the privatization of the CDPH clinics.
We believe the concerns and insights possessed by the members of the CDPH mental health staff have been intentionally dismissed and excluded from the Commissioner's narrative. It is time for the City Council and all concerned residents to stop taking at face value a single source regarding "quality mental health" in the City of Chicago.
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SEE ALSO:
THIS JOURNAL-CALIBER AFSCME REPORT, JANUARY 2012
http://www.stopchicago.org/publications/CDPH_MH_Report_Jan2012.pdf
TWO REPORTS FROM CHICAGO MUCKRAKERS
Dec 13th, 2011
http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-muckrakers/2011/12/employee-christmas-present-from-chicago-department-of-public-health-208-layoffs/
and Nov 1st, 2011
http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-muckrakers/2011/11/politicians-mantra-do-more-with-less-arent-we-just-doing-less/
MORE INFO:
STOP, and the Mental Health Movement, are the major community groups that have been spearheading the MH protest for a long time – buttressed now by OCCUPY, which is coming to town from all over for the NATO Summit the third weekend in May.
http://www.stopchicago.org/
SHADOW PRECEDENT 2009
http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/politics/the_2009_chicago_psych_olympic.php
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YOU TUBE VIDEOS
Woodlawn Mental Health Center APRIL 12-13, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgGL9jKrbD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSgNzR-cPlM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh-SwtYMnm0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmYEIr2kZAk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2p420GbcYI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ24WINUcHw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XlmkzMJnco
Just another painful and ugly example of why politicians should not be primary directors of health care decisions. You watch and wait, other big cities will be using this as a template until proven otherwise