Voters in Will County and four DuPage County townships will decide if they want to fund a measure to ensure residents have access to the mental health, substance abuse and developmental disability services they need.
On the Nov. 8 ballot across Will County and in Lisle, Naperville, Winfield and Addison townships in DuPage County is a referendum asking each to create and fund a community mental health board, also known as 708 boards for the state law that allows them to be established.
If approved by one or all of the townships, an annual tax would be levied at an amount of up to 0.15%. For residents of Will County, the annual tax rate can’t exceed .05%.
Geri Kerger, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness DuPage, said the need is great.
She cited a poll released last week by CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation that showed 90% of Americans believe there is mental health crisis in the United States. About half of adults surveyed said they’d experienced a severe mental health crisis in their family.
“Last week, I spoke to two mothers who lost their children to suicide. I am sure I will speak to another this week,” Kerger said.
Not only are suicide rates high, but children taking their own lives are becoming younger and younger, she said.
A 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages of 10 to 14 and 25 to 34. It’s the third leading cause for ages 15 to 24 and the fourth for those aged 35 to 44.
Nearly two times as many suicides (45,979) were reported in the United States as homicides (24,576), according to the report.
Drug overdose deaths are also a big concern for many, with numbers fluctuating in DuPage County over the last four years and going up for the most part in Will County.
Illinois Department of Public Health statistics show 157 overdose deaths were reported in DuPage in 2018, dropped to 131 in 2019, rose to 156 in 2020 and fell again to 149 in 2021.
Will County recorded 130 overdose deaths in 2018, 147 in 2019, 137 in 2020 and 158 in 2021.
Kerger said the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be long-lasting, whether it’s second-graders who are behind socially because they didn’t attend in-person kindergarten or those who developed post-traumatic stress disorder or mental illness as a result of isolation or losses.
“There’s family members who lost loved ones. There are children who were orphaned,” she said.
The concept of community mental health boards is not new; there are about 80 in the state.
In the northeastern Illinois, 708 boards are operating in many townships, including Bloomingdale and Milton in DuPage, and several counties, including Kendall, McHenry and DeKalb.
The benefit of having a board is the guarantee that the tax levy levied is spent on residents who live in the area where it’s collected, according to Michael Murray, who led the grassroots effort to establish one in Bloomingdale Township.
Murray said the seven mental health board members — appointed by the township supervisor or the county board chairman — understand the needs of their communities and can target funding to the nonprofits that can meet those needs.
“Money raised for Naperville goes to Naperville. It goes to fund services for Naperville. The money for Winfield or Lisle or Addison would fund programs in those areas,” he said.
With larger governing bodies, funding typically goes to the area of greatest need, “and that might not always be in your community,” Murray said.
A 708 board accepts grant applications and recommends an amount to disburse, but the final decision on the tax levy amount rests with elected members of the township board or county board.
Last fall in Bloomingdale Township, the mental health board requested close to $1 million in taxes for a variety of services, including funding for social workers at police departments. The Township Board approved a levy of $750,000.
If a 708 board levy of $1 million was applied in Lisle Township, the owner of a $390,000 home would pay about $25 a year, according to literature provided by Mental Health Boards for DuPage.
Kerger said her nonprofit, NAMI DuPage, serves between 15,000 and 20,000 DuPage residents per year through various mental health programs. Funds they receive from a township provide more programs and services in that specific community, she said.
In Bloomingdale Township, NAMI DuPage provides services to more than 1,500 people annually, most of whom would not be able to receive them without the township grant, she said.
Because NAMI programs are not offered based on income, the only requirement for services funded by a township grant is that those who benefit from it reside in the township.
Kerger said 708 board grants also help nonprofit organizations plan their budgets and provide continuity of services.
While counties provide behavioral health services for people on Medicaid and state funding is available to areas most in need, 708 boards don’t duplicate existing services, Murray said.
Instead, they work with existing community agencies to fill the gaps, such as providing funding for early childhood screening, he said.
If these programs and services are not available, communities will end up paying the price somewhere else, Kerger said.
It’s more cost effective to address problems before they reach crisis mode to prevent taxpayers from having to pick up the tab for more ambulance trips, police calls and jail services, she said.
Those who are not treated for substance abuse also tend to get involved in the wrong side of the law, she said, and burglaries and thefts related to drugs or alcohol make insurance go up.
“It’s much better for everyone if you pay for it in the treatment stages, in the early stages before. As things worsen, it gets, of course, incredibly more expensive,” Kerger said.
subaker@tribpub.com
