Stimulus funds to keep four mental health clinics open

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.

Deputy mayoral press secretary Jodi Kawada said it could be “up to two weeks” before the targeted clinics — Back of the Yards; Beverly/Morgan Park; Great Grant/Mid-South and Woodlawn — are ready to accept patients once again.

“We’ve been in the process of consolidation. Now, resources have to be put back,” she said.

The closings were expected to save the city $1.2 million. Interim funding to keep them open will be drawn from a $4.4 million “bucket” allotted to Chicago under the community services block grant formula, Kawada said.

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. They argued that a flawed Health Department billing system triggered the cuts and that the cuts could be reversed if the billing problems were corrected.

Without clinics close to their homes, some mental health patients simply won’t “get out of bed,” said Fred Friedman, who suffers from depression.

“We live a precarious life. And one of our lifelines is the city of Chicago clinics. For them to close these lifelines means that some of us simply won’t survive,” Friedman said.

“Some of us will end up in jail. Cook County Jail is the largest mental health clinic in the state. Some of us will end up in hospitals. All of those are vastly more expensive to the public than providing proper care in the community. It is up to the city to provide care for those who can’t care for themselves.”