6 mental health centers may close, activist says

The Daley administration plans to close six mental healthcenters, mostly in minority and predominantly poor areas of the city,the chairman of the city's Community Mental Health Board chargedWednesday.

But a city Health Department spokesman said he would be "amazed"if that were true.

The closures would affect thousands of people, whose problemsrange from severe mental illness to drug abuse and who can leastafford to be neglected, said mental health board chairman PatriciaQuirk.

Quirk said the plan to close the centers on Jan. 1 is part ofMayor Daley's budget cuts and would reduce the number of facilitiesfrom 18 to 12.

She said she knows of the …