by Hugh
Brady
NAMI’s
national
office
has just
released
Grading
the
States
2009,
its long
awaited
stateby-state
comparison
of
mental
health
programs
and
services.
Illinois
improved
its
grade
from the
F it
received
in the
2006
Grading
the
States
report
to a D
in this
year’s
study.
Here’s
NAMI’s
capsule
summary
of the
data
regarding
Illinois:
In
2006,
Illinois’
mental
health
care
system
received
an F
grade.
Three
years
later,
it
has
advanced
slightly
to a
D —
which
is
not
much
to
be
proud
about.
Illinois
leads
the
nation
in
numbers
of
people
with
serious
mental
illnesses
warehoused
in
nursing
homes.
This
fact
casts
a
pall
over
the
state’s
entire
mental
health
care
system
And the
report
notes
the low
levels
of
funding
for
Illinois’
mental
health
system,
stating
that,
because
of this,
the
grade is
a
precarious
“D.”
The
report
also
explains
that
Illinois
is doing
well
with
several
innovations,
including
community
education,
peer
supports
and
education,
as well
as with
its
efforts
regarding
police
Crisis
Intervention
Teams (CITs),
where
police
officers
receive
special
training
in how
to deal
with
people
who have
a mental
illness
and how
to
better
respond
to
emergency
calls
involving
people
with
mental
illness.
The
Chicago
Police
Department
has a
large
CIT
program,
which
the
report
cites as
a
“national
model of
excellence.”
And the
Arlington
Heights
Police
Department
is in
the
midst of
an
extensive
CIT
training
program
for its
police
officers.
Other
suburban
police
departments
have
also
expressed
interest
in CIT
training.
The
report
also
gives
credit
to
Illinois’
mental
health
courts,
which
are
growing
in
number
and
sophistication.
At the
same
time,
however,
our
mental
health
courts
not
doing as
well as
they
could
because
of a
lack of
supportive
housing
placements
for
people
with
mental
illness.
A mental
health
court
can’t do
a whole
lot of
good
when in
many
cases
the only
place it
has put
a person
with
mental
illness
is the
local
jail!
(If you
haven’t
heard,
the
largest
mental
health
facility
in the
state –
and the
second
largest
in the
country
– is the
Cook
County
Jail.)
The
report
also
calls
for
Illinois
to end
its
warehousing
of
mental
health
consumers
in our
infamous
IMD
nursing
homes –
currently
Illinois
has more
than
12,000
people
housed
in these
nursing
homes
where
standards
of care
are so
low that
Medicaid
will not
reimburse
the
state
for
them.
Here’s
what the
report
says
about
the IMDs:
Illinois’
continuing
reliance
on
for-profit
nursing
homes
and
segregated
facilities
known
as
“institutions
for
mental
diseases”
[IMDs]
to
house
younger
consumers
is a
major
problem.
In
addition
to
likely
violating
federal
law,
housing
individuals
in
nursing
homes
for
services
makes
no
monetary
sense.
No
federal
Medicaid
dollars
are
available
to
pay
for
these
expensive
placements,
so
the
state
bears
100
percent
of
the
costs.
In
addition,
according
to the
report,
Illinois
needs to
improve
its
evidence-based
practices
and to
fix the
problems
with its
new fee
for
service
program
for
reimbursing
mental
health
service
providers.
One of
the
supplements
to the
report
examines
more
than 60
particulars
of a
state’s
mental
health
system.
The
areas
where
Illinois
needs
significant
improvement
include
such
things
as
supportive
housing
and
supportive
employment,
where we
received
the
lowest
possible
scores.
We also
received
the
lowest
possible
scores
in the
various
categories
which
look at
the way
the
state
uses its
Medicaid
dollars.
And in
the
areas of
mental
health
insurance
laws,
mental
health
services
for the
uninsured,
and the
numbers
of
persons
served
by our
mental
health
system
our
scores
were
significantly
below
average.
Clearly
Illinois
has a
long way
to go
before
it can
say we
even
have
adequate
mental
health
care in
our
state.
The
report
concludes
with
these
words:
Although
Illinois’
grade
has
improved
slightly
from an
F to a
D, the
state
faces
fundamental
structural
problems
in its
mental
health
service
system.
Further
budget
cuts
will
only
compound
them. If
these
challenges
are not
addressed
quickly,
even the
slightest
momentum
for
reform
may be
lost.
For more
information,
you can
read the
entire
report
at:
http://www.nami.org/gtsTemplate09.cfm?Section=Illinois_Grades09&template=/contentmanagement/contentdisplay.cfm&contentID=74686
