After a career spanning over forty years as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, Mark Heyrman has identified a significant failing in Illinois’ mental health system: an apparent lack of centralized care coordination. This flaw manifests in multiple ways, one of which is the insufficient support for homeless patients discharged from private hospitals. Often, these individuals are given prescribed medication and then told to find a clinic for follow-ups. Unfortunately, this process often lacks what mental health professionals term a ‘warm hand-off’ to a treatment provider.
The lack of grip on the mental health system particularly impacts people facing homelessness and severe mental illness. These groups are more likely to become victims rather than instigators of crime. However, an observable portion continually cycles through the criminal justice system. When individuals with mental illnesses are convicted of crimes in Illinois, they often exit the prison system without any proper direction or follow up support.
The situation is not much better for those who are assigned probation on the condition that they seek treatment. They often struggle to find adequate treatment facilities, and this struggle intensifies particularly in downstate regions. Those whose criminal charges are dropped before trial often exit jail without a robust treatment strategy mapped out for them. This lack of systematic support and care could lead to more challenges down the line.
On the other hand, individuals found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to state-run facilities like the Elgin Mental Health Center do receive a high degree of care. In these situations, however, society insists that they ‘serve their time,’ just as sane individuals convicted of crimes would, thereby ignoring the distinct needs and conditions of those dealing with mental health issues.
These demands for prolonged, expensive inpatient care put considerable strain on the already stretched thin mental health resources, particularly in a state where such resources are scarce. Experts believe that many of these individuals could be treated on an outpatient basis, provided they receive the right kind of support, freeing up funds and space for those with more intensive needs.
Individuals who are charged with a crime but identified as mentally unfit for trial are expected to be sent to a state mental hospital until they regain fitness and can participate in their trials. However, these individuals often end up lingering in jail due to the pervasive shortage of state psychiatric beds. Jails typically have fewer available mental health resources, which can exacerbate the deterioration of their mental condition, especially in rural regions.
With only around 1,200 state psychiatric beds across Illinois, Heyrman advocates for increased funding towards community mental health initiatives. Such funding could support individuals who don’t require round-the-clock hospitalization, enabling them to transition out of state mental hospitals. This move would then make room for those in more dire need of inpatient care.
The cost of maintaining the current, flawed system should concern even those indifferent to mental health challenges in Illinois. The state reportedly spent an average of $49,271 per incarcerated person in 2024, a figure that towers over the cost of ‘wraparound’ services designed to keep people in a treatment circuit. Intensive services offered by the two largest social service providers in Chicago range between $15,000 to $35,000 per client per year, depending on individual needs. This amount is up to 70% less than the cost of imprisonment.
In an attempt to address these issues, Illinois is considering expanding the use of ‘outpatient civil commitment.’ This process, though established in the state law, is infrequent. It involves a court order for supervision and treatment in the community for those with severe mental illness deemed as potential risks to themselves or others. This alternative provides an option other than extended hospitalization.
This legal process targets critically ill individuals who face difficulties adhering to their treatment plans. A recent federal grant bestowed upon Illinois will help educate stakeholders about this civil commitment process and find ways to make it easier to implement. The grant aims to improve the situation by matching courts with providers over a court order duration of up to half a year, during which individuals would be given case management, care, and peer mentorship.
Project coordinator Block envisions that the program, thanks to this federal grant, will manage about 50 cases annually in Cook County. On a broader scale, the systematic improvement it introduces could contribute significantly to the state’s overall mental health scene, expected to positively impact those facing mental health challenges along with the criminal justice system.
Dr. Stephen Dinwiddie, head of forensic psychiatry at Northwestern University’s medical school and a former medical director at the Elgin Mental Health Center, explains that mental illness is not inherently predictive of harmful and violent behavior. But this doesn’t mean society should overlook preventive measures for those mentally ill individuals who show a potential risk, especially when they’ve had multiple encounters with law enforcement and evidently require medical care.
Dr. Dinwiddie emphasizes that early and adequate treatment of mental illness, which often underpins other troublesome actions, could avert multiple tragic outcomes. He reiterates that had proactive mental health interventions been effective, many unfortunate incidents could have been prevented from escalating. Yet, these potential success stories often go unnoticed, simply because they don’t result in visible crises.
The post Professor Highlights Major Flaws in Illinois’ Mental Health System appeared first on Real News Now.
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