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State Representative Kathy Ryg on Mental Health - January
2007 State Representative Kathy Ryg was the guest speaker at our annual general membership meeting in November. Rep. Ryg was at the time the vice-chair of the Mental Health Committee of the Illinois House, and is expected to become chair of the Committee when the legislature reconvenes this month. Her legislative district, the 59th, includes most of Lake Co. Buffalo Grove, and most of Wheeling, Riverwoods, Lincolnshire, Vernon Hills, SE Mundelein and even a bit of SW Waukegan. Rep. Ryg spoke of the poor state of support for mental health programs and facilities in Illinois. She said that the key problem was funding. There are lots of good programs, she noted, but due to budgetary constraints, most of them are under funded. The Mental Health Committee is a new committee in the legislature, and she is optimistic that with a bi-partisan committee working on the problem, when budget time comes around Illinois’ mental health programs should be able to get a larger slice of the pie. She urged NAMI members and others who have family members with mental illnesses as well as consumers themselves to advocate for better public support for mental health programs. She said legislators need to hear from their constituents. Most of them do not have much experience with mental health problems and so know very little about them, she added. So they need to be educated; they need to hear from us. She has found most legislators to be supportive when they knew about the scope and seriousness of mental illnesses. So this month, let’s all make it a point to drop a letter or an e-mail to our State Senators and Representatives about the need to improve funding for mental health programs in Illinois. Rep. Ryg is fully aware that there are more mental health patients in our state prisons than in all the mental health facilities in Illinois, public and private combined, but most legislators are not. So let’s educate and advocate. Take a moment and write or call your state legislators. The more you can spell out about your personal situation and the problems your family has had getting adequate mental health treatment for your family member, the better. The legislature can’t fix problems they don’t know about, so it’s up to us to make sure they know! If you are uncertain who your state legislators are, contact the Illinois State Board of Elections website legislator look-up page at http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/AddressSearch.aspx
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