>>‘Sad, scary, frustrating:’ Gaps exist in southwestern Illinois mental health care

Cindy Gregorian was suddenly thrust into the mental health system in southwestern Illinois when her sister got sick.

The Belleville native said it felt like walking into a pitch black room and feeling around to understand where to begin. She made calls, sent emails and drove to offices as far as 350 miles from her home in Kansas City to get answers about what help was available.

“It’s just been kind of a nightmare,” Gregorian said. “… I feel like I’m smart enough — not that I’m extremely smart, but I’m smart enough — that I should be able to work the system better.”

She soon learned what many others have also come to know: Southwestern Illinois doesn’t have enough places to go or professionals to provide psychiatric care to everyone who needs it.

Years of financial challenges in the community mental health system and staffing shortages have followed deinstitutionalization that began in the 1950s. As a result, Illinois has much fewer psychiatric hospital beds and mental health professionals than it once did.

Today, a total of 156 beds between Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City and Touchette Regional Hospital in Cahokia Heights serve St. Clair and Madison counties, where the combined population is over 500,000 people.

Most people with mental illnesses won’t need treatment at a hospital. But it’s difficult to find other care, too.

At the same time more people started seeking help with their mental health since the COVID-19 pandemic, more professionals have been leaving for higher-paying jobs, according to Deborah Humphrey, executive director of the Madison County Mental Health Board.

Less than a quarter of people in Illinois now live in an area where there are enough psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to meet their needs, federal data shows.

Traveling for mental health care

Gregorian said her sister was in and out of emergency rooms for severe symptoms of psychosis and once traveled to a mental health facility in Indiana — 140 miles from the nursing home where she was receiving care in Highland — because local psychiatric services weren’t available to her when she needed them.

“Watching this happen to her, it’s just been so incredibly sad, scary and then frustrating,” Gregorian said.

Community mental health officials say the problem is even worse for kids in the metro-east. Gateway Regional stopped providing adolescent and child services in August 2020. It had been the only option in the region for kids who needed hospital treatment.

Children have had to travel as far as Chicago for those services, according to Humphrey. She chairs a committee on children’s behavioral health for the trade organization for mental health boards, the Association of Community Mental Health Authorities of Illinois.

“Imagine your child being hospitalized with mental health issues and have a six-hour drive to be able (to see them),” Humphrey said. “If you’re working, can you even get away to go visit, be part of the plan and their care while they’re there?”

Local officials say additional state funding would help the community mental health system. Some organizations are trying to fill the gaps in their communities now.

Addressing metro-east’s gaps in access

Chestnut Health Systems, a nonprofit community mental health provider, is planning to add more crisis beds in Madison County, according to Orville Mercer, Chestnut’s vice president of strategy and innovation.

Its 10-bed crisis program in Maryville will grow to 15 beds. Mercer said crisis beds are an alternative to going to the ER for a mental health issue. People can get treatment for up to two weeks, and then Chestnut helps them find housing in the community, including an apartment or residential program.

St. Clair County is also in the early discussion and planning phase of seeking state funding to add more inpatient psychiatric beds in the county, according to Dana Rosenzweig, executive director of the St. Clair County Mental Health Board. He said they had not yet determined how many beds the county might need.

In the meantime, metro-east residents can experience long wait times for care.

Gregorian said the wait for her sister to get inpatient psychiatric care in the metro-east was four months long. Gregorian was waiting right along with her.

Psychosis causes delusions, making it difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not. Since getting help, her mental health is more stabilized and her mood has improved. She still gets confused, but Gregorian has seen her sister smile again.

“She seems content. She’s smiling,” Gregorian said. “… It was months she went without smiling.”