Occupy Mental Health! New Update.

UPDATE: The the encampment in the vacant lot across the street from Chicago’s Woodlawn Clinic was dismantled by the police, but no arrests were made. The Woodlawn Mental Health Clinic is scheduled to be closed along with 5 other mental health clinics. Mental health workers and patients had barricaded themselves inside the clinic last Thursday night until forcibly ousted by the Chicago police. 23 people were arrested.

People continued to occupy by sitting in chairs and sleeping in cars. It is now 12:25 in the afternoon on Tuesday & I’m at a coffee shop at the corner. There are about 12-15 people across the street from the clinic with a car and van full of camping equipment. They have set up a table with food and signup sheets. Last night the cops said that owner of the vacant lot where they had set up camp had complained. It was a lie. The complaint did not come from the owner. They did lose a tent to the police, but managed to hang on to most of their stuff. They plan to stay the night again. The City Council is planning to meet about Rahm’s big infrastructure plan tomorrow morning.The demonstrators a hoping some alderpeople will raise the issue of the mental health clinics.

2 PEOPLE ARRESTED. POLICE FORBID CAMPING IN VACANT LOT ACROSS FROM WOODLAWN CLINIC

After a press conference at 2 pm on Tuesday attended by the media, the Mental Health Movement began erecting tents in the vacant lot across from the Woodlawn Clinic. Almost immediately the Chicago Police arrived and threatened anyone with arrest until the tents were taken down. I saw two people arrested almost at random as the protestors tried to comply with the order.

Original diary begins below:

While riding the El down to the Monday morning press conference by Chicago’s Mental Health Movement, I couldn’t help but reflect on Rahm’s Emanuel’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. He is obsessive about funneling money to Chicago’s wealthy and compulsive about his attacks on services for Chicago’s working class. Rahm’s latest offensive is the closing of 6 mental health centers.

The issue of closing mental health clinics first came up last fall during the protests surrounding Mayor Emanuel’s proposed budget, which also included slashing library services, privatization of neighborhood health clinics and layoffs of public employees. There was an hours long sit-in outside the Mayors office demanding that all mental health clinics remain open. Below is a video produced shortly after the fall round of protests.

OUR LIVES ON THE LINE: Voices from Chicago’s mental health clinics

Last Thursday night (April 12), a group of patients and mental health workers barricaded themselves inside the Woodlawn Mental Health Center on the South Side to protest its closure. Early the next morning on April 13, police used tools to break through the door and arrested 23 people who were inside.

Inside the Woodlawn Clinic before the bust:

Outside of the Clinic before the bust:

Together with with Occupy Chicago, protestors than set up a small tent village outside the clinic to rally support and gain news coverage after months of being ignored. The protests are being led by Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP), a 5 year old community group. The Mental Health movement is a member of STOP. Occupy Chicago has helped organize people and gather supplies to keep the tent city protest going. The tent city endured a couple of rough nights due to bad weather but is still holding strong.

At the Monday morning press conference clinic patients and mental health workers who had been arrested told of not being screened for possible mental health episodes, of having their medication denied to them and being ridiculed by jail personnel. One woman said that she was groped by a male officer in her vaginal area under the guise of being searched, a search that should only be conducted by a female officer.

There was fear expressed that if clinics are closed, there will be more police brutality toward mental patients, more drug addiction, more self-destructive behavior and more suicides as patients seek help elsewhere, a help that may not be forthcoming as many of these patients are indigent.

Later the group met with the officials of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) who tried to reassure people that their needs would be taken care of by the CDPH “partner institutions”, as well as the remaining public clinics. This was met by deep skepticism by the Mental Health Movement activists who told of people already being turned away after referrals. One woman gave details about the understaffed Greater Lawn Mental Health Center whose workers cried when they had to turn away new patients.

The term “partner institutions” is just a gussied-up term for privatization, and private health care has no interest in patients that don’t generate a profit.

The Mental Health Movement issued a 23 page report last January with the help of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). I have quoted from that report below. For the full report, please go HERE.

Dumping Responsibility:The Case Against Closing CDPH Mental Health Clinics

The city’s claimed cost savings are tiny and illusory. CDPH claims closing clinics will save $2 million—barely 1% of its $169 million annual budget. And this claim ignores the budgetary, societal and human costs of inevitable disruptions in patient care—including increased emergency room visits, hospitalization, police intervention and incarceration.

CDPH should cut waste—including $1.67 million in new spending on upper management salaries, outside contracts, advertising and surveys. This amount should be used to sustain and improve city MH clinics.

CDPH would transfer at least 1,100 Medicaid patients to private providers— effectively giving away federal reimbursement for their services. If this plan is budget-driven, it is illogical to turn away patients with the ability to pay.

Closing six clinics will force 2,549 patients to travel to other city clinics or seek private care. There is no guarantee that private providers and hospitals will offer treatment regardless of ability to pay. The system’s more than 3,000 uninsured individuals are least likely to find private care since such providers already face shrinking budgets and reduced state funding.

CDPH is rushing to close clinics in just eight weeks—despite having six months of funding in the budget and nothing but an outline of a plan for patient care. CDPH has circulated a list of private providers, but admits it has no formal agreements with or information regarding capacity, services and wait times from these agencies.

As I sat in on the meeting with the Department of Public Health this morning, I thought of my own struggles with depression, of being lost in that long dark tunnel of despair and on at least two occasions, wondering if I was going to come out alive. Fortunately I had access to some limited treatment, even though my health insurance didn’t cover it because it was a pre-existing condition. When people are in that kind of state, it’s difficult for them to fight their inner demons, much less ones with the power of the Mayor’s Office and the LaSalle Street financial barons. My heart goes out to the brave patients of the Woodlawn clinic.

But despite all of the facts presented and the personal stories told, the Mayor’s obsessive catering to the wealthy and his compulsive dissing of the working class goes on unabated. Mr. Mayor, don’t you think that’s a little crazy?

Faces of Chicago’s Mental Health Movement

Mental Health Movement