A new program meant to help people experiencing mental health crisis is now open to patients in Oak Park thanks to the village government’s support.
NAMI Metro Suburban and the village of Oak Park cut the ribbon on a new “living room” mental health support space last week. The program, operating out of NAMI Metro Suburban’s offices at 816 Harrison St, will provide a space for people in a mental health crisis to come and receive care from a trained NAMI recovery support specialist.
“The village is proud to support and help fund this important initiative, which expands access to compassionate, community-centered care and strengthens the local mental health response system,” Oak Park officials said in a statement about the ribbon cutting this week.
The specialists are trained to “provide a listening ear and real coping strategies to help” and connect patients with appropriate mental health resources in an environment designed to feel homier and more comforting than a doctor’s office or hospital setting, according to the group.
The program is open to anyone 18 years old or older and the service is provided free of charge, according to NAMI. The NAMI Metro Suburban chapter group already operates living room programs in Summit and La Grange.
The Oak Park program will be open to the public from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily, according to the group.
Oak Park’s village government committed last year to funding the new community mental health crisis program over a three-year pilot period.
Oak Park’s village board voted in the fall to provide $450,000 in grant funding over the course of three years to NAMI Metro Suburban to support the mental health care organization establishing a new “living room” crisis care program in Oak Park. NAMI had already allocated over $205,000 in yearly funding for the program but needed $150,000 in yearly grants from the village to cover the program’s budget.
Local living room programs can help reduce the strain on emergency rooms, according to NAMI’s presentation to the Oak Park board.
“Although emergency rooms are designed for acute physical ailments, over 12% of all visits are due to mental illness or substance use,” NAMI wrote in its proposal. “Despite not having psychiatry beds, Rush Oak Park Hospital reported that for calendar year 2023, it had 757 visits to the emergency department related to psychiatric crisis. Over 27% of those visits were from Oak Park residents. This underscores an urgent community need for effective and accessible mental health support in Oak Park. Unfortunately, many hospitals and their emergency departments – including Rush Oak Park Hospital and West Suburban Medical Center — are not adequately equipped to treat mental illness, whether because of short staffing, hospital policy surrounding treatment times, or stressful surroundings.”
According to the proposal, the West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center, which handles 911 calls for Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park, received over 2,500 calls related to psychiatric distress, most of which were for Oak Park residents.