Mayor Brandon Johnson opened the Roseland Health Hub on Wednesday, a major step in his effort to expand Chicago’s bricks-and-mortar mental health system.
Johnson cut the ribbon at the the long-shuttered clinic surrounded by many of the same activists who led the decade-long charge to reopen a dozen city-run mental health centers closed by past mayors. The opening marked a milestone for Johnson’s promised “Treatment Not Trauma” plan, a vision that faces future challenges posed by the city’s financial troubles.
“No matter what ZIP code you reside in or who you are, you deserve accessible, quality behavioral health care, and my administration will keep working to ensure every Chicagoan gets what they deserve,” Johnson told the crowd packed into the building’s lobby.
The mayor also announced Wednesday that Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) teams will now operate in two additional police districts, bringing the total to six districts. The CARE program sends specially trained first responders without police to emergency calls involving mental and behavioral health issues.
Johnson also is adding a “special cases” CARE team that will respond to such emergencies citywide based on requests emailed to the Chicago Department of Public Health at careprogram@cityofchicago.org. The special team could help the city respond to people who are often seen in crisis around a neighborhood or at an encampment when a police response isn’t appropriate or efficient, said CDPH Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo Ige.
The CARE teams arrive with a range of tools big and small, from the naloxone nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdoses to snacks and warm clothes. The first responders also are tasked with connecting patients to city services.
Johnson first added free city-run mental health services inside a Pilsen health clinic and Garfield Park’s Legler Regional Library last year. At the new Roseland clinic, patients will have access to everything from vaccinations to psychiatric medication, therapy and “healing arts.” The building already offers sexual health services.
The clinics have capacity for “about 300” regular patients, Ige said. Five full-time clinicians work at the Roseland location. The clinic reopenings were a goal of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which strongly supported Johnson’s 2023 campaign.
“No matter what you need, no matter where you enter from, we want to meet you where you are,” Ige said. “We want to give people options. And we want to give people good options.”
Though Chicago once ran 19 mental health clinics, only five remained when Johnson took office on a campaign promise to rebuild the drastically cut system.
Johnson spent over $20 million in his first budget to expand the CARE teams and reopen clinics but was unable to add a large amount for new expansions in his most recent spending plan as the city grappled with a sprawling budget gap. Asked about the challenge of continuing to add more mental health services amid a budget crisis poised to remain, Johnson said it took a long time for the city’s old system to shrink.
“I think what’s most important here is that there clearly was a promise that was made,” he said. “That’s what transformational leadership shows up for, to do the hard things.”
He did not say where or when clinical services will be added next.
