Author: tntcomms
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Community Visions for Public Mental Health Services in Chicago: Findings from Citywide Listening Sessions & Survey
Between February 15 and March 18, 2024, representatives from the Collaborative for Community Wellness (CCW) hosted a series of seven listening sessions across the city of Chicago. The aim of the listening sessions was to facilitate small group conversations where community members could share past experiences with public mental health services, if applicable, and their… Read more
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We Gotta STOP Crimininalizin’ Mental Illness: Experiences with Mental Health Crisis Response in Chicago
From July through October 2023, a team of sociologists from the University of Illinois at Chicago interviewed 23 residents of Chicago about their experiences with mental health crisis response. In partnership with the Collaborative for Community Wellness, we set out to learn about people’s actual experiences with mental health services and crisis response in our city.… Read more
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Mental Health Crisis Support in Chicago: Findings from a City-Wide Survey
To help ensure that community perspectives inform future recommendations for the expansion of Chicago’s mental health crisis response system, the CCW surveyed community residents across the city of Chicago to learn more about their vision for addressing emergent mental health needs. Highlighted below is an overview of our study methodology, key findings, and recommendations for… Read more
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Examining Barriers to Mental Health Service Accessibility in Chicago’s Privatized Network of Trauma-Informed Centers of Care
Although the Lightfoot administration promoted the Trauma Informed Centers of Care network as offering “no-barrier access to mental health services…across all 77 Chicago community areas,” findings from the current study make it strikingly apparent that Chicago’s privatized mental health service landscape is far from facilitating no-barrier access. The vast majority of Chicago’s population does not… Read more
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911 Behavioral Health Call Rates Across Chicago’s Wards: Understanding Call Rates in the Context of Disinvestment in Public Mental Health Services
Using publicly available data through The City of Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General, we plotted 911 behavioral health call rates per 100,000 residents between January 1, 2019 and February 8, 2022. The rates are for the entire period of 3.1 years rather than an annual rate. We displayed the data by Chicago ward, split… Read more
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Mental Health Service Access in Chicago: Findings from a City-Wide Survey
Between August 26, 2020 and March 3, 2021, the Collaborative for Community Wellness surveyed community residents across the city of Chicago to assess mental health needs and barriers to accessing services. Consistent with findings from past research, data indicated that despite a high demand for mental health support, limited availability of free services impedes community… Read more
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Assessing Mental Health Service Accessibility in Chicago: Findings from a Survey of City-Funded Private Non-Profit Providers
In October 2020, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the city was awarding a total of $8 million in grant funds to 32 private non-profit providers to support their delivery of mental health services. To understand the real-world accessibility of mental health services available through these private non-profit providers, the Collaborative for Community Wellness undertook a systematic… Read more
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Public Hearing on the Public Mental Health Service Expansion Resolution
In January 2019, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution on Public Mental Health Service Expansion, with 48 of the 50 aldermen signed on as co-sponsors. The resolution affirmed the critical role of city mental health clinics run by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and called for an independent study to investigate where… Read more