A New Way for Disability Rights

We can do much more at the state level to ensure that children and adults who are disabled get the support and services they need to become productive citizens.

My brother, Tim, is autistic. I grew up seeing firsthand the challenges and difficulties confronting the disabled in our society. I saw my parents advocate for my brother and I know how hard they had to struggle to obtain services for him. It should NOT have to be so hard.

Fighting for more services for the mentally ill in our state is a priority for me. I believe programs should be provided across the spectrum and throughout the lifetime of any person who is mentally ill in Illinois.  These programs would have benefits for all citizens in Illinois,  as some estimates suggest that for every dollar spent on mental health services in this state, $5 is saved on overall healthcare costs.

Mental healthcare for children:

One in 10 Illinois children – or more than 350,000 under the age of 19 – suffer from a serious mental disturbance severe enough to impair their functioning and ability to learn, according to Mental Health America of Illinois. Only 20 percent of these children receive mental health services. The Illinois Children's Mental Health Act was passed in 2003, coordinating various health programs for children. However, the Unmet Needs Project found that 62 percent of childcare programs for ages birth to 3 reported inadequate mental health resources.

The numbers tell the story: Too many children in our state are not getting the mental health care they need. Unfortunately, unless they are covered under a health insurance plan that offers mental health services, they often do not receive counseling or therapy; also, medications may be out of reach for their parents.

I also believe the use of restraint or seclusion in our public schools needs to be better regulated. According to a 2003 White House report, restraint and seclusion creates significant risks, including serious injury or death, retraumatization of people with a history of trauma, loss of dignity and other psychological harm.

Although Illinois regulates the use of physical restraint and seclusion in schools, many schools continue practices that violate these rules.  Strict enforcement and penalties for violating these regulations should be enacted. Illinois should establish a statewide directory of individuals who have lost their licenses or been convicted of abuse or neglect.

Every family with a special needs child needs the option to provide appropriate care for their child. Though many children are getting enough help through the state, some families are even being forced to give up custody of their own children to the state to get the residential care they need, an unconscionable situation. I will push hard to fully fund the Individual Care Grant programs, so that every child receives appropriate care.

I propose an overhaul of mental health programs for children in Illinois. We must identify the children who need services – in our classrooms, playgrounds and gyms – and get them the help they so desperately need. If left untreated, mental health issues among children can grow and fester, becoming problems that can hurt not only the sufferers themselves but those around them later on. Unless we take early action and provide programs of intervention while these children are still young, we will see them enter the juvenile justice system. A 2002 study of juvenile detainees in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center indicated that large numbers of youth in the detention center had serious mental illnesses.

Mental healthcare for adults:

Just as many of our young people struggle with mental health issues, the problem is also acute among adults in our state. Data obtained from U.S. Census and the U.S. Center for Mental Health Services suggest that, at any one time, more than 700,000 Illinois adults are coping with a diagnosable mental illness. Illinois leads the nation in numbers of people with serious mental illnesses warehoused in nursing homes, according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). NAMI gave Illinois a grade of D in 2009 for its treatment of the mentally ill. 

We must improve these services:

• Health Promotion and Measurement: We must offer more basic measures, such as the number of programs delivering evidence-based practices. We must cut emergency room wait-times and increase the quantity of psychiatric beds in each hospital and clinic.
• Financing and Core Treatment/Recovery Services: We must offer a variety of financing measures, making sure that Medicaid reimburses providers for all or part of evidence-based practices and more.
• Consumer & Family Empowerment: Consumers and families must have improved access to essential information from the state. Consumer-run programs must be improved. Family and peer education and support are badly needed throughout Illinois.
• Community Integration and Social Inclusion: Collaboration among state mental health agencies and other state agencies and systems should be improved.

We must do a better job of serving and caring for our mentally ill.