Guest Column: Closing Singer: The fine line between public care and private hospital revenues
By Will Rose
In the last few years, Singer Mental Health Center on the northwest side of Rockford has seen budget cut after budget cut, initially leading to the foreseeable end of its own existence.
Political pundits and government officials knew the probable end was near, but community members and Rockfordians held on to a higher calling, hoping Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) (soon to be renamed “Governor Sin”) would keep the needed facility open.
Jobs will be lost, services will be harder to find for the patients, but worst of all, the patients will be pushed into a society that is unaccommodating and unsafe for both sides of the spectrum.
With Rockford having one of the highest crime rates in the state, Gov. Quinn unleashed mental health patients who are on lockdown to total freedom.
As I watched the release of such news on local television, I heard in an interview that local hospitals had been preparing for this for some time. I asked myself, how would they know that Singer was shutting down? Were they key players in the shutdown, and were they influencing government into taking public funds away from the state-run facility to line their own facilities’ pockets?
I have many other questions, too. How can a temporary emergency room provide part-time care to full-time schizophrenic patients? How does temporary care at the Rosecrance-Wattles Center replace the full-time care at Singer?
My biggest question is why are Rosecrance and Rockford hospitals receiving more state funding for mental health care, but Singer is getting shut down?
The answers are not clear, but what is clear is that there is a political move in this state to privatize as much government as possible. Whether it is in our schools with private vouchers and charter schools, the hiring of outside firms to run our prisons and corrections, to the ending of our mental health facilities, private businesses are moving in with little accountability — and even more important, huge profits.
Bill Gorski, CEO of SwedishAmerican Health System, commented that the hospital has been planning to add mental health experts in expectation to the Singer shutdown. In fact, the Rockford Register Star reported that state funding has already been restructured to go to area hospitals (private businesses) to pay for expected “psychiatric emergencies.”
Sounds good for SwedishAmerican, but it wreaks havoc on the local community that will have to deal with the safety issues regarding these “psychiatric emergencies.”
This is one of the worst government blunders I have seen since following politics at a young age. Essentially, the state is telling local communities they don’t care about the mental health of its citizens, nor the safety of those who live near the patients in need of psychiatric help. It is a dangerous world out there, but it just became more dangerous because our governor is either fearful to make the proper cuts in government, or he is appeasing the private health care lobbyists and interests in our state. Whatever the case, his lack of leadership over issues following this state have repeated tenfold.
I just can’t wait to see Gov. Quinn’s name in print again — only this time at the ballot box.
Will Rose is a Loves Park, Ill., resident.
From the Sept. 19-25, 2012, issue
Print This Article
6 Comments
Great article, Bill! There’s no hope for this state if Governor Quinn gets re-elected after everything he has done. Worst governor in my lifetime, and that includes the ones we’ve thrown in jail.
Good article. It is how we treat the poorest and most defenseless in our society that we will be ultimately judged.
Nicely stated. The system is now set up to fail the neediest citizens.
Thanks for your interest Mr Rose. I believe you have some very valid reasons for concern. Rosecrance Health Network has been leading the lobby effort to privatize mental health services in our area. They are also expanding in Chicago and McHenry County. They are a non-profit on paper but run like a corporate machine. Their CEO earned $441,726 in compensation in 2009 according to their IRS 990. All of their top management earn well over 100k per year. This comes from donations, but mostly from taxpayer money. I bet they are not paying their therapists, nurses, and technicians that well. This was never about patient care, only about getting those State contracts. The State is also breaking up a union to do this which provided good middle class wages for the people who actually did the work. And let me say that working in a prison or inpatient psychiatric unit or with disabled people is not easy work. All this privatization does is line the pockets of a few and further reduce the middle class. A trend that has been sweeping the country. Singer will close and people in psychiatric crisis without health insurance better learn to pull themselves up by the boot straps because after 6 days of treatment thats it. The jails and homeless shelters better be ready. The most important thing about the State providing mental health care was that it didn’t discriminate if you are rich or poor or if your condition is chronic or it is the first time you ever needed help. Everyone has a breaking point and with economy as bad as it is it could be you that gives up hope after you lose your job, then your house, then your family. People who are in their first mental health crisis, like when a person first develops schizophrenia or bipolar are most at risk to be under-treated in this new system of care. These people will have access to 6 days of hospitalization. Then what???? Out the door and on the street or transferred several hours away from family and friends. Also, the time line the State is trying to do this in is absurd. You cannot hire recent college graduates, provide a couple of weeks of training, and expect them to do what a staff with years of experience and training are doing. There are also rigorous accreditation standards that appear are being waived to help this move along more quickly. This will be a disaster for the already fragile mental health system.
Thank you Bill! One of the best written editorials on this situation. Directly on point and realistic as to the situation at hand. Agree wholeheartedly. Thank you again.
I appreciate all the comments on the article. I hope I can work on further articles to hold accountability within our government system and corporate structures that utilize taxpayer money for profit. Government should not be in the business of making profits for well off companies or lining the pockets of aristocracy while the middle class suffer loss in wages, jobs, and stability. No way, not while I am around.