Mayor Brandon Johnson today announced that the Roseland Mental Health Clinic on Chicago’s South Side will reopen by the end of 2024. The City will also expand clinical services citywide: The Johnson Administration will partner with the Chicago Public Library to provide mental health services at Legler Regional Library in West Garfield Park and will add services at a city-run clinic in Pilsen.
The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) will operate the clinic, located at 200 E. 115th Street.
“This expansion of our mental health system has been a long time coming, many thought it couldn’t be done, many thought it wasn’t a priority,” Johnson said at a press conference today, “but it is a priority.”
“Addressing the mental health needs of our residents and improving our response to mental health crises is critical to the future of our city and for all of its people,” he added.
The Roseland mental health clinic was one of 14 clinics that have closed since 1989. In 1989, there were 19 mental health clinics in the city. By 2011, only five remained. In 2011, the Chicago City Council voted 50-0 to approve former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first budget, which included closing half of the city’s public mental health clinics. Four of the clinics were on the South Side.
Diane Adams, a longtime South Side resident and mental health advocate, has been fighting to reopen the shuttered mental health clinic for 13 years. She knows firsthand how important a public mental health clinic is after losing her son in 1996.
“After he died I fell into a deep depression. I attempted suicide in ’98 and was in a coma for four months in 2005. It took years for me to recover, but I got the help I needed,” Adams said. “My therapist helped me regain my self-esteem and confidence. With hard work and care, I’ve got my life back. I know quality mental health care is life-changing and life-saving.”
Johnson was joined by CDPH Commissioner Dr. Olsimbo Ige, Councilmen Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd Ward), Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th Ward), Walter Barnett (27th Ward) and Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward), as well as mental health advocates and community activists.
“People on the fringes are now in the center. Communities that have never been a priority are now a priority. Roseland is a priority. Pilsen is a priority. West Garfield is a priority. [Park] “This is a priority. Just because you’re brown or black in the city of Chicago doesn’t mean you can’t get the services you need,” Governor Ige said.
Today’s announcement builds on more than a decade of organizing efforts led by community activists, residents and elected leaders to reopen shuttered city-run mental health clinics, as well as Johnson’s campaign promise to implement “treatment, not trauma,” which called for the creation of a 24-hour mental health crisis response team within the city’s Department of Public Health and its expansion citywide.
Ronald “Cowboy” Jackson is another activist who has long fought for the survival of mental health clinics, including the closure and privatization of the Roseland Clinic, which Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed for in 2016. Jackson chained himself to the clinic’s door in December 2016 to protest its privatization and closure.
