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On Wednesday, September 27, NAMI Northwest, the NAMI chapter based in Arlington Heights, hosted a legislative forum for area state legislative candidates. Those who attended were State Representatives Carolyn Krause and Sid Mathias, both of whom are seeking reelection, as well as two candidates for the Illinois State Senate, Peter Gutzmer and Dan Kotowski. NAMI Northwest’s Venus Gintout hosted the meeting and began the evening by explaining NAMI’s rating of the states. In that rating, Illinois was one of only nine states that got a rating of F, far behind neighboring states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. The candidates were then invited to each make an opening statement. Representative Carolyn Krause is running for reelection from HD56 (Mt. Prospect, DesPlaines area). She sits on the House Healthcare Committee and spoke of the current budget for mental health services. She said that, unfortunately, the current year’s funding from the state is the same as last year’s and that due to budget cuts from Washington, the federal funding picture is not good either. She pointed out that a great deal of state funding has gone into nursing homes, many of which are now providing custodial care for mental health patients. She stated that some of this funding needs to be shifted to mental health facilities so that mental health patients can get the care they need. In addition she said that the state needs to provide mental health ombudsmen to help steer mental health patients and their families through the maze of services and agencies. Representative Sid Mathias is running for reelection from HD 53 (Wheeling, Buffalo Grove, Arlington Heights area). He currently sits on the House Health Care Availability Committee and spoke of the problems caused by federal budget cuts, especially in Medicaid, which is being cut by $43 billion over the next ten years. He also spoke of the newly created Mental Health Courts which may help direct people suffering from mental illnesses away from the criminal justice system and into mental health facilities where proper treatment can be provided. He said that there had been an 89% decrease in incarceration for those in the program, resulting in substantial cost savings to counties and the state. He stated that these courts needed to be continued and expanded. Peter Gutzmer, who is running for the State Senate from SD 27 (Arlington Heights, Palatine, Buffalo Grove, Barrington area) is a firefighter and paramedic in Elk Grove and, as a first responder, has had many first-hand experiences with the inadequacies of Illinois’ mental health care systems. He has heard many times from families that a patient is “off his meds” and can’t afford to stay on them and has no access to mental health treatment. He pointed to budget cuts as a culprit and said funding in this area should be increased. He also agreed that the state needs to provide ombudsmen or contact persons to help direct mental health patients through Illinois’ disorganized system of mental health care providers and services. Dan Kotowski, who is running for the State Senate from SD 33 (Elk Grove, Mt. Prospect, Park Ridge, south and east) is a director of youth mental health and substance abuse programs and has also seen first hand the problems which exist in Illinois’ mental health care systems. He said that it is very important for us to raise awareness of those problems and for the state to increase funding for mental health services. He said that the choice is really to invest now in proper treatment or to pay much more later for wrecked lives, imprisonment or hospitalization. He added that in his program, many of the students are already involved in the criminal justice system and that more therapists and counselors are needed to keep these young people out of jail. All the candidates responded sympathetically to the problems audience members brought up during the question and answer session. There was general agreement that when it comes to budgeting at the state level, it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and they all urged NAMI members to contact their state legislators regularly, urging them to improve Illinois’ “F” rating. Remember, election day is November 7th. Remember, NAMI is a support and advocacy organization. The way to start advocating for our family members is to vote!
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