A 62-year-old man said the City of Chicago has no business closing down several mental health facilities that many residents rely on.
A 62-year-old man said the City of Chicago has no business closing down several mental health facilities that many residents rely on.
Within the next two months, four of the city’s 12 mental health centers will close their doors due to a lack of state funding.
The centers provide counseling services and psychiatric care and medicine. Based on a patient’s income and household size, a sliding scale fee is used to determine the cost for services.
The health department tried as best as it could, but the cash shortfall just didn’t leave them room to keep all the facilities open. Some just had to go, said the city Public Health Department’s Commissioner Terry Mason, M.D.
“I’m on a fixed income, and the cost to take the bus keeps going up. I live close to the center on Woodlawn and could probably deal with it a little better if they weren’t closing the one on Cottage Grove, but that’s going to,” said William Edwards, who lives in South Shore.
Mason said Edwards and others would be given the option to seek treatment at the remaining centers.
“We are trying to balance them across the remaining facilities as best as we can,” Mason said.
With the closing of Woodlawn and Greater Grand/Mid-South, Edwards said he will have to transfer to either the Chatham/Avalon or Auburn/Gresham facilities, a commute that will take him farther west than usual.
“The city seems to find creative financing to get the things they want, but we get the short end of the stick. It’s just not fair. I need for my center to stay open,” he said.
The City Council passed a resolution in 2006 that called for a moratorium on closing the city’s mental health centers.
The news of the closings was new to aldermen whose constituents are affected by the decision. There was no vote by the council to close any of the centers, and the mayor’s 2009 budget did not reflect any closings.
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