Johnson commits millions to ambitious mental health plan despite budget constraints
Goals include expanding mental health clinical services, improving and expanding non-police response for behavioral and mental health crises, and increasing community awareness of available mental health resources, the budget proposal shows.
The mental health objectives fit into the framework of Treatment Not Trauma, a progressive plan to expand mental health services in Chicago, primarily by eliminating police presence from mental health emergencies and reopening and operating city-owned and -staffed mental health clinics.
So far, Johnson's announcements include reopening a clinic in Roseland and adding clinical services to two additional city-run locations, including one in Pilsen and another at Legler Regional Library in West Garfield Park. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Pilsen health hub is slated for Nov. 20, according to the CDPH.
The mental health investment, however, also comes as the CDPH's budget is slated to shrink 16% to nearly $700 million next year. Most of the funding decline is related to COVID-era federal grants expiring, but the city's contribution from the corporate fund is also down slightly, by about $770,000, to $76.03 million.
The corporate fund drop reflects broader money constraints in next year's $17.3 billion budget. Johnson faces a nearly $1 billion budget gap in fiscal 2025, which he has so far proposed to fill by raising property taxes, eliminating vacant positions and raiding the city's economic development funding. Even so, the tough financial outlook made finding cost savings in city departments essential this budget season.
For the CDPH, that included being strategic. Next year, the CDPH will use opioid settlement funds to pay for opioid remediation programs, which frees up corporate funds for other initiatives, including mental health, Annette Guzman, the city's budget director, said during a Nov. 1 editorial board meeting with Crain's.
"Because they have a dedicated source to fund things like that, it was prudent to move those costs onto those types of funds," she said.
While the CDPH's overall budget will shrink by about $140 million, only programs and services related to the pandemic are downsizing or being cut, Guzman said.
More of the CDPH's 1,051 full time employees will be paid for with corporate fund dollars next year, but the overall number of positions is also set to decrease next year as 124 vacant jobs get eliminated, a move that curbs costs to bring the overall budget expense down.
The contracting public health budget is troubling to some advocates, including a group that recently asked Johnson's administration to invest more into the agency next year.
More than 80 public health advocacy groups, clinics and nonprofits urged the mayor to allocate an extra $25 million of corporate funds to the CDPH in 2025. The group, led by the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, argues the CDPH has long been given an insufficient amount of money each year to tackle the many issues on its agenda.
Wesley Epplin, policy director of the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, said next year's drop in funding is "unacceptable."
As budget hearings progress this month, he said advocates plan to continue arguing for the funding they requested.
"I recognize that it's tough when you're facing the prospect of a billion-dollar deficit," Epplin said.
Even still, "we're hopeful that through the budget negotiation process that more money will be added to the Chicago Department of Public Health," he said. "We know that's probably going to be an uphill climb, but we want to talk with any and every elected official who will talk with us to explore what (that means)."
