Here is something for citizens of Winnebago County, Illinois; perfect delivery of mental health care, if you can get it. If such a thing exists, how could we describe it and how to get it?
Perhaps it would be prudent to strive for the very best, or maybe just to strive for what it should be. What is that like? Who will decide this? Yes, that is the question for us now because all of us here in Winnebago County will want to vote on March 17. A referendum that day asks if we chose a half-cent sales tax to be used for mental health and addiction care.
Twelve million dollars, if voters approve, will arrive each year to be distributed and managed by a board of people to be carefully chosen. Wow! $12 million, sounds close to the best we could do; certainly better than zero local funding Winnebago County has had toward mental health. What might citizens expect from $12 mil?
After losing major funding from the State of Illinois, our county has fallen into crisis shortage of resources for mental health. More and more people falling through the cracks; a crisis we’ve known for some years. Would we expect a system that will search out untreated and catch up with surging depressions and suicides? We have not had a system that intends to take help to people and makes access easy.
Nonprofit public care such as Janet Wattles and now Rosecrance, always centered on the most serious and chronic people and families unable to afford longtime care and private or insurance care. Part of the $12 mil is urgently needed to catch up for their needs. If voters allow the tax, that part of mentally ill in our community will benefit. Now what of the unserved in the surging depression and anxiety illnesses spreading over the county? Can we have renewed attention to that part of the community?
We do have in Winnebago County around 150 private counselors, therapists psychologists and psychiatrists. If we add that number to the nonprofit providers, we still fall short, but a few hundred working together might more expertly use that $12 mil. But, they never did work together; certainly had not worked out a system intended to serve the whole community. I fear things cannot change until they do.
Private providers, what do you think? Many unserved people might hope to hear your intentions. They need your welcoming words. Maybe you’d say, “We promise to make a safe place for you.” Hospital board members, how many more children’s beds will you insist on for your building? They need you out here. Will you risk something in order to help unserved people whose illness risks everything? Everyone is asking.
Who in fact is responsible for mental health care of the community? I hope it is the private and public providers and hospital board members of Winnebago County who grasp that role and take it. Assure the citizens that you will take charge of a better system; help this new board administer the tax funds. Mentor them to organize attitudes, policies and schedules to cover everyone.
People of The Group Hope Depression Bipolar Support Groups are awaiting leadership about this. Of course they hope for this funding method to pass.
Dr. Charles Smith of Rockford is a mental health advocate and depression support advocate.
