Kadner: Illinois violates own law by cutting mental health

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Mark Heyrman

Updated: January 1, 2012 8:15AM

Illinois may face a lawsuit if it decides to close the Tinley Park Mental Health Center just to save money.

It appears that the state’s political leaders have worked out an agreement to keep open through June 30 Tinley Park and six other state facilities that were scheduled for closing.

But the state still plans to close the Tinley Park center and has yet to develop a plan to provide care for the people it currently serves — the seriously mentally ill who have no health insurance.

That appears to be a violation of a state law called the Community Services Act.

That law reads that whenever the state closes a state-operated facility for the mentally ill or developmentally disabled, reduces the number of beds at such a facility or cuts staff, any savings realized “must be directed toward providing other services and supports.”

“The Tinley Park Mental Health Center treated 1,900 people last year, and the question remains how will they be served if the facility is closed,” said Mark Heyrman, chair of public policy for Mental Health America-Illinois.

Heyrman said neither he nor other mental health advocates want the center to remain open indefinitely, but he’s still waiting for the state to come up with an alternative treatment plan.

Any such plan would require financial support from the state, and Heyrman said that if that doesn’t happen, a lawsuit is a possibility.

“Our national organization, Mental Health America, has directed me to explore the possibility of a lawsuit against Illinois, and we are doing that at this time,” said Heyrman, a clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago. “The Community Services Act is pretty clear and says that you can’t eliminate a mental hospital just to save money. Those funds must be reallocated to provide services for those in need.”

As I wrote in a previous column, the shortage of psychiatric beds in the Southland is already so severe that mental patients in need of care have often spent up to four days in hospital emergency rooms waiting for placement.

Since 2005, state officials have discussed closing the Tinley Park center with community agencies that serve the mentally ill, asking them repeatedly to come up with plans to provide care when it shuts down.

In 2007, state officials indicated that they wanted to build a 100-bed, state-of-the-art psychiatric facility to replace Tinley Park when it closed. With the state billions of dollars in debt, no one is talking about building such a facility these days.

Lisa Labiak, vice president of Grand Prairie Services in Tinley Park — the lead mental health agency for Bloom, Bremen, Rich and Thornton townships — said in recent weeks she has again discussed plans for replacing the Tinley Park center with officials from the Illinois Department of Mental Health.

That plan, among other things, would include the state paying for private hospital stays for mental patients; pre-screeners in emergency rooms to identify patients suffering from mental illness; transitional housing for the homeless discharged from a hospital stay; and permanent supportive housing for those who may only need to consult with a case manager if they need assistance.

The total cost of the Grand Prairie plan is estimated at $6.1 million, not including the cost of paying for treatment in private hospitals.

“This is basically a revision of the same plan we presented to the state three other times,” Labiak said. “The problem is coming up with a plan without having any idea of what the state plans to spend.

“We still don’t know what funds the state would have available. No one is talking to us about money. The good news is that at least they are once again talking about coming up with a plan if Tinley Park closes.”

Joseph Troiani, director of the mental health division of the Will County Health Department, said about 400 people a year in Will County use the Tinley Park Mental Health Center.

“Hearing about the state’s decision not to close the hospital (soon) was sort of like Christmas and also being an inmate on death row whose execution has been delayed,” Troiani said.

He said as recently as Tuesday he heard about a patient in a Will County hospital emergency room who had been waiting for four days to be transferred to a psychiatric facility.

“It certainly seems to me that the Community Services Act requires the state to spend any funds it saves by closing a facility for the treatment of the mentally ill,” Troiani said.

But the state’s priority is clearly saving money, not treating the mentally ill.

Cook County Jail has become the largest psychiatric facility in Illinois because there’s no place else to put those suffering from mental illness.

And that’s with Tinley Park still open.