County Mental Health Board allocates $9.3M to 30 agencies

CRYSTAL LAKE ? The McHenry County Mental Health Board recently allocated more than $9.3 million in funding to 30 local agencies for the next fiscal year to provide prevention, treatment and recovery support to members of the community.

Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States, 43.8 million or 18.5 percent, experiences mental illness in a given year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. By 2020, behavioral health disorders are expected to surpass all physical diseases as a major cause of disability worldwide, according to a news release.

Those selected to receive the funding applied and were vetted by the nine-member board before they were selected. The organizations that received funding also will be required to participate and successfully complete audits throughout the year to ensure they are meeting the necessary goals to continue receiving the funding.

Mental Health Board Executive Director Scott Block said that being able to provide these funds to county agencies has stabilized the area in what is otherwise an unstable environment across the state given its budget issues in the last year.

"Access to these services for our family, friends and neighbors in McHenry County really sets us apart from other counties," Block said.

He said one difference from past years is the emphasis on access to psychiatric care. Roughly 13 percent of all dollars allocated for the next fiscal year were for access to psychiatric services, totaling eight different agencies across the county. Those who received funding are expected to serve 3,250 residents in the next year, he said.

Organizations funded include the Twenty-Second Judicial Court, Aunt Martha's, Community Health Partnership of Illinois, Family Alliance, NAMI-McHenry County, New Directions Addiction Recovery Services, Thresholds and Turning Point, among several others.