Wearing a T-shirt printed with a self-portrait of her daughter, Marianne Bithos asked a state panel at a public hearing Tuesday to stop a plan to close the Tinley Park Mental Health Center, which she said dramatically improved her child’s life.
Bithos, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness for the South Suburbs of Chicago, told members of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability that she first took her daughter to the facility in 2002. Her daughter began taking medication for schzioaffective disorder when she was released two weeks later, and today the 40-year-old Hazel Crest woman is a senior at St. Xavior University.
Bithos said she fears closing the Tinley Park center, which Gov. Pat Quinn has decided to do, would take away the option for other families to turn things around.
“My daughter’s story is one of success through the treatment she received in her community,” she said at the hearing, which was held in Orland Park. “Everyone deserves the same chance. That just won’t happen if you close this hospital.”
Bithos was among several hundred mental health advocates, elected officials, health care administrators and residents who weighed in during a hearing on the state’s Department of Human Services plans to close the facility. Outside of testimony given by department officials, most speakers asked the commission to keep the facility open or establish an alternative mental health service center in the south suburbs.
The proposal to close the facility is part of Quinn’s plan to close seven state facilities –– including three mental health centers, two developmental centers, a prison and a juvenile detention center –– and lay off more than 1,900 state workers because he said the General Assembly approved a budget $313 million shortfall. Closing the facilities would save about $54.8 million, according to the governor’s office.
Quinn does not have to adhere to the recommendation given by the commission, but he has followed all eight of its advisory opinions since he took office.
DHS Secretary Michelle R. B. Saddler said the budget approved by the General Assembly to operate the Tinley Park center for the year is $10.7 million, about half of the amount appropriated the year before.
“The 50 percent budget appropriation sent a clear message that this facility is meant for closure,” Saddler said. She informed the commission that layoff notices would go out to 184 workers at the facility on Wednesday, with the objective of closing it no later than early December.
Saddler noted that the center’s operations take up eight of its 18 buildings and that it is in need of serious repairs. Located at 7400 W. 183rd St., it was built in 1958 and needs about $158 million in deferred maintenance, officials said.
The facility has about 75 beds and served more than 1,900 patients in fiscal year 2011. But officials said that when they visited Tuesday, the facility was serving 38 people. Because of staffing shortages, the facility can only fill 51 beds at a time.
With the closure of the center, department officials said they are asking community-based agencies and private hospitals to help treat those with acute mental illnesses.
Lorrie Rickman Jones, the Department of Human Services’ director of mental health, said there are sufficient private and community-based facilities to serve the displaced patients. Jones added that five hospitals in the area have told the department they have room for more patients.
But Joseph Moser, vice president of Ingalls Health System, said last year the hospital sent about 275 patients to the Tinley Park Mental Health Center. The hospital has its own behavioral health department, but it doesn’t have enough room or funding to serve an increased number of patients, he said.
“What do we do?” he said. The state is not coming up with any solutions. They’re just saying: ‘You guys figure it out on your own.’ “
Opponents of the closure said they fear that without an alternative plan, people who need mental health services will end up on the street or in the correctional system.
Lisa Labiak, vice president of development and corporate communications at Grand Prairie Services, said her organization won’t support the closure of a state facility without plans for replacement services.
“Right now, they have no plan to provide for any kind of community services for the individuals that are going to be displaced, and that’s what we’re here to advocate for,” she said. “It’s not about the facility closing. It’s making sure the services are available and accessible to the community.”
The bi-partisan commission voted to reject the closure plans of four of the seven facilities last week and will vote on the other three during next week’s legislative veto session in Springfield.
#SOURCE: Chicago Tribune By Ashley Rueff Nov 1, 2011
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-parents-patients-and-advocates-ask-state-to-keep-mental-health-center-open-20111101,0,1604516.story?track=rss
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