Latino mental health centers debated

Latino community still unsure about future of mental health centers
by Dawn Rhodes, April 14, 2009

The uncertain future of mental-health resources on Chicago’s South Side means the city’s Latino community needs reliable services now more than ever, leaders of the Pilsen Wellness Center announced at a Tuesday news conference.

One week after Mayor Richard M. Daley surprisingly announced he was halting the closure of four South Side mental-health clinics, the Pilsen Wellness Center promised to extend its programs to clients served by the Back of the Yards Mental Health Center in Brighton Park, McKinley Park and Back of the Yards.

Although the Chicago Department of Public Health announced Tuesday that all four clinics will be up and running by April 20, that news provided no comfort to those at the Pilsen Wellness Center.

“That will affect the Latino community because it’s giving mixed messages,” said Patricia Perez, Division of Mental Health Director at the wellness center. “What is the consistency and what is the forecast for the future? Is this temporary, or is this going to be forever? It really puts more stressors and confusion into the whole system.”

Monica I. Masana, the center’s quality-assurance director, said there are other issues that necessitate reliable mental health services in the Latino community.

“The situation of being immigrants and having split families is something very deep and heavy for immigrants,” she said. “That, together with the economic situation, it really burdens them. Sometimes they cannot reach the services because they do not have the money to pay for counseling, and the drugs and the psychiatrists.”

Pilsen Wellness Center, which has been providing services for more than 40 years, is determined to compensate for any lack in mental health services to Chicago’s Latinos, said Perez.

"Latinos are a working community. Are we open late at night to service them? Yes, we are," she said. "Latinos are very collective and humanistic. Do we work with just the individual? Yes, but we also work with the family unit."