Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Daily Southtown
by Gregg Sherrard Blesch

A state official left no doubt Monday that the Tinley Park Mental Health Center is a setting sun, ending months of rumors and denials while the decision was officially on hold.

Department of Human Services Secretary Carol Adams told a state-appointed task force she would use its work as a "blueprint" in closing the hospital and remaking the region's mental health system.

But those wondering when the hospital will close and what might take its place got no answers.

Adams said her department now will come up with a plan that includes a timeline, cost figures and how the hospital patients will receive care.

Such continued uncertainty disappointed some at Monday's meeting.

"The plan was to have another set of planning meetings, right?" said John Cameron, director of community relations for the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents most of the hospital's workers.

Adams' department formed the task force last year after the state's proposal to close the hospital and sell its land at 183rd Street and Harlem Avenue sparked resistance among employees and the communities it serves. The mental health center serves a region stretching from Chicago's South Side to Grundy and Kankakee counties.

The task force — made up of mental health providers and advocates, Council 31 representatives and local and state officials — was asked to determine the need for the Tinley Park hospital and what other resources should be bolstered with its share of state dollars if it were closed.

Recent moves to cut 58 hospital staffers and 33 beds, which were coincidentally effective Monday, fueled suspicion that the closing was a done deal. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is asking for $20.4 million for the hospital for the fiscal year that begins July 1 — $3.6 million less than it received this fiscal year.

The task force report says that before closing or further downsizing the Tinley Park hospital, the state must come up with another state-operated hospital setting. Some patients won't get what they need from private hospitals, even those that offer psychiatric beds under state contract, according to the report.

The group also insists that any money made from selling the Tinley Park hospital's 213 acres should go toward mental health services in the region — not to help plug the state's budget deficit.

In an interview after Monday's meeting, Adams said she couldn't make any promises about how the proceeds from the sale of the prime property would be used.

"I'm not in a position to make that guarantee," she said, adding that she expected at least some of the money to stay in the mental health system.

Christopher Fichtner, the state's director of mental health, again suggested the state would explore a partnership with a community hospital in which the state would operate a psychiatric unit.

He and other task force members previously named Oak Forest Hospital, a Cook County hospital where employees also are represented by AFSCME, as a good candidate for such a partnership. Human services department officials have not started talking to Cook County about whether the idea is feasible.

Fichtner said the money spent on the Tinley Park hospital would be better spent on expanding outpatient services throughout the area, reducing the need for hospitalization.

The hospital's workers have been rattled by continual rumors of a closing. Adams told Brenda Hampton, the regional director for the state mental health division, to promise them "we're not going to sneak in one day at midnight and try to shut down."

Adams said the human services department has not identified a timeline for the hospital's closing or a target date when its services would be transferred elsewhere and its campus put up for sale.

"What I'm trying to do is let the vision guide the steps," she said.