“Our mayor talks about putting in river walks and stadiums we don’t need,” Jackson said. Rauner - a close friend of Emanuel- reportedly spent $ 6 million of his own money on the race. Ronald Jackson, a Mental Health Movement member, noted that Bruce Rauner, the winner of the recent Republican gubernatorial primary, spent more on his primary campaign than the mental health clinic closures were supposed to save. We need to reevaluate our priorities as a city.” It’s a matter of quality of life it’s a matter of survival in our communities. “I’m standing in front of people, not statistics,” Enyia said, noting that mental health is “not a luxury. Amara Enyia, the first challenger to announce her candidacy, spoke at the vigil. The clinics are likely to be an issue in the race leading up to the February 2015 mayoral election. Fioretti is one of the few council members who have spoken out against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose inaugural budget found up to $ 3 million in savings by closing the six mental health clinics. On Wednesday March 26, the coalition of advocates, workers and mental health consumers will hold a press conference at City Hall with Alderman Robert Fioretti. We want to have a hearing so we can give them a chance not to be ignorant.” We don’t believe they’re cold-hearted, we believe they’re ignorant. “In 2012 every one of vote to close the clinics. “We’ve been knocking on the door of Alderman Cardenas since 2011, and he refused,” Carter said. Cardenas did not meet with the group, but one of his staff held a private meeting with several organizers. After the vigil, advocates visited the nearby office of Alderman George Cardenas, chair of the committee on health and environmental protection, during his scheduled “ward night” hours. The Mental Health Movement is calling on the Chicago City Council’s health committee to hold a public hearing examining the state of mental health care in the city and the effects of the closings. “Now in many communities people have nowhere to go, especially on the South Side.” “We had people stabilized and able to work because they had talk therapy,” said Mental Health Movement leader N’Dana Carter. Many thousands of Chicagoans go without the benefits of mental health care, they charged, especially after the closure of the six clinics, as well as cutbacks in the county health care system. Members of the grassroots Mental Health Movement, alongside members of AFSCME and SEIU Local 73 unions (which represent Chicago and Cook County mental health workers) described the deep and wide-ranging effects of mental health crises on families and whole communities. And being incarcerated, family members and advocates say, only intensifies mental health issues. Mental health advocates - and others, including Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart - say that the cuts in mental health care mean more people are ending up in the county jail. Half of the city’s 12 public mental health clinics were closed as a result of budget cuts in 2012, and advocates fear the remaining six are now over-burdened and being starved of resources. Holding a candlelight vigil on the steps of the country’s largest jail Monday evening, Chicagoans testified one after another about the importance of the city’s public mental health clinics and service providers.
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