 According to Illinois Department of Human Services spokesman Tom
Green, plans are being made to close state psychiatric hospitals and
developmental centers in the event a state budget is adopted that
does not adequately fund mental health programs.
Dr. Stephen Soltys, psychiatry department chairman at Southern
Illinois University School of Medicine, says that if McFarland
Mental Health Center in Springfield is closed, it could clog
hospital emergency rooms and cause more suicides, criminal activity
and misery among the mentally ill.
Soltys said building up the outpatient system in central Illinois
to handle McFarland's closure would take years and might require as
much money as the $18 million it costs annually to operate the
facility.
[Associated Press]
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