Activists Protest Closure Of Logan Square Health Clinic

By aaroncynic in News on May 10, 2012 5:40PM

A photo of the tent city protesting outside a Woodlawn mental health clinic in April. (Photo Credit: Sarah-Ji

Activists from the Mental Health Movement began a second protest at another closed clinic in Logan Square yesterday. Dozens of activists gathered in front of the Northwest Mental Health Clinic at Milwaukee and Fullerton to protest its closure, along with six other neighborhood clinics in Chicago as part of budget cuts.

In a statement, the Mental Health Movement said “Today, we are expanding our campaign to the Northwest Mental Health Clinic…This clinic has served the predominately Latino community of Logan Square for 30 years. This is the first site of our expanded resistance to clinic closure.”

Activists have been protesting the clinic closures in Chicago in front of a clinic in Woodlawn for nearly a month, where they have attempted to set up encampments twice. They argue that the closures adversely affect clients by limiting local access to care and treatment. N’dana Carter, a supporter of the Mental Health Movement and one of those arrested at their first occupation at a clinic in Woodlawn, said during a press conference in front of the Northwestern Clinic, “We have cases where people who speak Spanish and only Spanish are being sent to clinics where there’s no therapist that speaks Spanish. What are they supposed to do?”

Protesters are also calling for those coming into town to protest the NATO summit to join them. “We know that we can count on the people mobilizing for the NATO demonstrations to respond to our call with the tactic of non-violence and in a way that continues to lift up the voices of those of us whose lives hang in the balance of this struggle,” read the statement from the Mental Health Movement.