Fed funds help strengthen mental health services on South Side

A mental health agency serving a large portion of the South Side was granted federal funds to strengthen its services, outreach and education.

The Community Mental Health Council, Inc. in the South Shore neighborhood, in partnership with The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, will receive $350,000 to help close the funding gap left by a loss of $2.3 million in state funding, said the agency’s president and chief executive officer, Carl Bell, M.D.

The funding will pay for two postdoctoral clinicians who will supervise eight graduate student interns. They will concentrate on four areas of need: child and family services, juvenile justice, rehabilitation services and substance abuse.

The state funding loss represented 15 percent of CMHC’s budget, according to Bell, a professor of psychiatry and public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, D-2nd, sponsored the funding bill that was signed last month by President Barack Obama.

“So many families struggle with treatable mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. It is incredibly important, especially during times of crisis, to address the shortage of mental health professionals and provide patients with necessary, vital treatment,” Jackson said in a statement.

Carroll Cradock, president of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology’s city campus said the economic stress and mental health go hand in hand.

“In times of economic stress, the likelihood that people experiencing mental health issues increases because of poverty and financial stress affects a persons ability to cope,” Cradock said.

Grant White, M.D., associate vice president of CMHC’s Outpatient & Family Services and associate professor of clinical psychology who will coordinate the project, said

“The economic situation is rough on folks who need psychological services now more so than they did before. You have more people needing services and less services and resources available. The funding will help provide a partial solution. It’s like a perfect storm. The clients will benefit because students come in with a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and a lot of cutting edge education,” said White.

In existence for at least three decades, the CMHC provides frontline help to thousands of residents struggling with mental illness, substance abuse and other behavorial disorders and has outpatient sites in Chatham-Avalon, Englewood and at Jackson Park Hospital. Services are provided on a sliding fee scale.

Bell said the agency works with a diverse pool, including children, veterans and ex-felons. It has 10 full-time psychiatrists; offer rehabilitation services; have nine residential facilities on the South and West sides that can house 100 people; and partner with Jackson Park and St. Bernard hospitals for psychiatric emergency services.

CMHC offers many services the City of Chicago’s 12 mental health clinics – which provide counseling services and psychiatric care and medicine – do not, he said.

“The city does not have psychiatric emergency services … psycho-social rehabilitation or day treatment …residential facilities…occupational or job rehabilitation. The city does not do research or educate and train. We do,” Bell added.