Thrive Counseling Center is the local community mental health center ensuring access to mental health care for low-income individuals and families. Thrive recently reached its largest size in decades. With a growing team, it has been well-positioned to expand critical programs. An indicator of this expansion was a recent announcement that new clients are being scheduled immediately without spending time on a waitlist. A rarity for community mental health providers and welcome news as the nation’s mental health emergency continues. Other developments from Thrive include the addition of robust language assistance and the launch of an intensive therapy program for people who have experienced Trauma.
Enhancements have extended to Thrive’s Crisis Response Program. For more than 50 years, Thrive has partnered with the Oak Park Police Department and also works with the River Forest Police Department to decriminalize mental health and support individuals during mental health emergencies. Thrive’s’ crisis team is available to co-respond with police 24/7/365. In the past year, Thrive grew its staff to include Peer Support Specialists, individuals with personal experience having a mental illness or substance use disorder. These peers are trained as Certified Recovery Support Specialists and accompany mental health clinicians on crisis calls. Thrive also began offering short-term stabilization services for individuals immediately following a crisis event. The sessions are designed to provide support after a mental health emergency with an effort to encourage the individual to pursue longer-term therapy and psychiatric medication as necessary.
The recent service enhancements build on national and local initiatives (such as the Community Emergency and Services Act- CESSA) to direct mental health emergency calls away from 911 to 988 in order to minimize police involvement. Additionally, it reflects Thrive’s certification by the State of Illinois as a 988 mobile response provider for this region.
“It’s important for us all to consider what this shift away from hospitalization and police involvement looks like as we work together as a community to support those living with a mental illness. We often encounter the same people in crisis more than once, and it requires compassion and patience to get people connected with the right resources and help them with the courage they need to take the next steps toward recovery,” says, Dr. Sarah Wiemeyer, Thrive’s Clinical Director who joined the team in July of 2022.
Thrive works to proactively address mental health through outreach and education. It continues to offer a CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) accredited suicide prevention program and provides training to students at Oak Park River Forest and Trinity High Schools. The team collaborates with other nonprofit organizations to conduct proactive outreach through partnerships with Live4Lali, joining their team weekly on their mobile outreach and harm reduction unit; facilitating monthly mental health screenings with Rush Oak Park and Beyond Hunger; and serves as active members of the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition.
“We aim to wrap around the community, providing all levels of mental health support from prevention and education to intensive therapy programs with evidenced-based treatment approaches. The people we serve need more than just weekly therapy, and we strive to meet whatever needs they have, even when that includes having our case managers take them to the local food pantry,” says President/Executive Director Jennifer Rook, also new to Thrive in 2022.
Thrive remains focused on its 2023-2025 strategic plan, looking forward to further growth and program expansion with a central focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
You can support equitable access to mental health care by making a gift on Thrive’s website, thrivecc.org/donate or by attending their Spring Benefit on April 13th. Register at thrivecc.org/spring-benefit