County decries Tinley closure Stroger: We can't absorb mental facility's patients Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Daily Southtown
by Jonathan Lipman Cook County officials made it clear Tuesday they have no interest in taking in any patients who would be displaced if the state closes the Tinley Park Mental Health Center.
"I told (the state) we should not be in the mental health business," County Board President John Stroger said. "We have a lot of land out there at Oak Forest (Hospital), but it wasn't dedicated to running a mental institution.
"The state has sovereignty ... but we don't have to take it without making some noise."
Illinois director of mental health Christopher Fichtner and other state officials have suggested in recent weeks that patients from the state hospital be sent to the county-run Oak Forest Hospital.
Department of Human Services Secretary Carol Adams on Monday told a state task force the mental health center will close, but did not provide a timetable.
The state has yet to make a formal proposal to the county. Stroger said he won't open discussions with the state about it "unless they try to dump the mental patients on the county."
Traditionally a rehabilitation center, Oak Forest Hospital has increasingly been used as an emergency hospital by ambulances turned away from other hospitals in the south suburbs.
Officials said there would be no room for a major influx of patients at the hospital without construction of a new facility. The hospital would also need new staff and programs.
"We don't have the money to accept these patients, and we're not licensed to accept these patients," said Commissioner John Daley (D-Chicago).
County officials frequently complain they're already fulfilling much of the state's assigned role in caring for mental health patients. Both the county hospitals and the jail house scores of mentally ill people.
"They have shifted their responsibility to counties like ours," Stroger said.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to close the 213-acre facility and sell its land to help fill the gap in the state budget.
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