By Carol Wilson

Treating mental illness is a major challenge for our society today that too often is overlooked. While we know that mental illness is highly treatable, and that without treatment, it leads to many negative outcomes for individuals and their families and out society in general, too often this is not a cause that gets the attention it needs. Witness the recent headlines from Chicago, where the city is trimming its budget by closing six of its  mental health care facilities.

 

Our Mission Possible for January is Turning Point, a Skokie-based non-for-profit outpatient mental health center whose mission is to serve people with mental illness with respect, compassion and professionalism, regardless of their ability to pay. The organization’s mission statement is “Solid Support. When you need it most,” and one of its basic tenets is serving those who otherwise have nowhere to go.

 

While other facilities are closing their doors or cutting back their service, Turning Point is actually expanding, in part because its staff and board of directors are working hard to find new funding sources for its efforts. Earlier this year, Turning Point opened The Living Room, a program designed to offer respite and care for mentally ill persons facing a crisis, such as suicidal thoughts or intense anxiety. Instead of going to a hospital emergency room, which is often the only option, individuals can come to The Living Room and find peer counselors available to assist them, for free, in a comforting and soothing atmosphere. The counselors, who have weathered their own mental health issues, are specially trained to provide this kind of care. The program is funded by a state grant, which primarily goes to the salaries of peer counselors, and is expected to save up to $500,000 a year by eliminating costly ER treatment., while providing more immediate and better care.

 

This program fits into Turning Point’s recovery model, which is based on the  belief that each person who walks through its doors has the capacity to recover from his or her mental illness. Services provided by Turning Point’s professionally trained clinicians combined with its clients’ strengths, hopes and dreams create an environment where realistic recovery goals can succeed in changing their lives.

 

Turning Point has been providing essential, life saving mental health services to this community for more than forty years. Founded in 1969 as an area mental health center, the agency has grown to serve residents in communities throughout metropolitan Chicago and suburban Cook County. Despite having closer choices, some clients choose to travel up to 30 miles to see a Turning Point clinician. As the agency has grown in size through the years, so has its commitment to the recovery model of mental health.

Today, almost 90% of Turning Point’s clients fall below the federal poverty line, and hundreds of those clients benefit from the organization’s sliding fee schedule. As state funding cuts have reduced availability of funding for many un-insured patients, Turning Point has developed new funding mechanisms, including Tickets to Recovery,  which allows Turning Point to directly ask funders to help provide lifesaving mental health services to people who need them the most. Through this program, donations purchase tickets that will be given directly to clients who can use them to pay for services that are no longer funded by the state. Turning Point’s therapy, psychiatry and case management services literally make the difference between someone being a productive member of society and being unable to function and ultimately returning to the hospital.

 

Please give as you are able to support the vital ongoing work that Turning Point does in our community.  Pastor Tim Brown, Tom Ross and Carol Wilson all serve on the Turning Point Board of Directors and are willing to discuss Turning Point further and to answer any questions you might have.