Mayor Emanuel: The Grinch who Stole Clinics

Mayor Emanuel's 2012 Chicago City Budget proposes to close half of Chicago's mental health clinics and privatize all 7 of its neighborhood health centers, cutting off access to care to some of Chicago's most vulnerable residents and under-served communities.

The Mental Health Movement, launched by Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP)'s in partnership with the Community Mental Health Board of Chicago and AFSCME Council 31, has been trying to meet with Mayor Emanuel since he was just a candidate. We delivered 4,000 letters explaining that closing clinics is dangerous for communities and will carry unanticipated costs in extra hospitalizations and police response to preventable crises.

He ignored our letters and announced his plan to close and privatize our clinics. After asking for over a year to face the people his decision could kill, we sat-in for 10 hours at his office the day before the budget vote. Nonetheless, due to political arm-twisting, his budget passed 50-0.

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) has NOT consulted with the people this decision will affect. The Commissioner refused to appear at a town hall, meeting only with small groups who consistently told him that this decision will cost lives because many people cannot survive a transition to other clinics far away or cannot afford the co-pays charged in the private sector. But we continue the struggle.

This video is from the next council meeting after the budget passed. We showed up to sing some "alternative" holiday carols about how the Emanuel administration is simultaneously seeking hundreds of millions in subsidies to rich companies like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange while closing clinics for the most vulnerable for a meer $3.3 million illusory "savings."

The Mental Health Movement is one of the only groups in Chicago history that won a head-to-head confrontation with then-Mayor Daley, when he tried to close four of these same clinics in 2009. That struggle launched a human rights movement lead by mental health consumers/survivors that continues growing to this day.

We will not back down.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Mental
• Health
• HumanRights
• STOP
• Southside
• Chicago
• Public
• #chibudget