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Sites selected for McLean County's new mental health programs

Pantagraph - 2/20/2019

Feb. 20--BLOOMINGTON -- McLean County's three ideas to address mental health service gaps soon will take shape at 200 W. Front St.

Spaces will be reconfigured in portions of the McLean County Health Department building for interim locations for a triage center for crisis evaluation, telepsychiatry and for a program for people with mental illness who have frequent encounters with homelessness services, law enforcement and emergency departments.

The new programs are expected to begin in the spring. Decisions will be made in the fall as to whether the programs will remain in the health department building or be relocated, said County Administrator Bill Wasson.

A portion of health department space used as a waiting room by WIC (Women, Infants and Children), children's immunization and dental clients will be shifted to adjacent space, said health department Administrator Camille Rodriguez.

"We will try to improve our clinic (patient) flow," Rodriguez said.

The upcoming services are a new chapter for the county's behavioral health improvement efforts that began with the county board's approval of a mental health action plan in 2015 and continued with subsequent approval of a sales tax increase by Bloomington and Normal to fund behavioral health programs.

"It's exciting to reach the point where we hope to begin to directly impact peoples' lives," Wasson said.

Workers at the 24/7 triage center will assess individuals in a mental health crisis who come in or are brought by law enforcement, and will refer them for additional services.

The triage center will be located on the first floor of the northeast corner of the building, which has a separate entrance with parking, said Trisha Malott, the county's behavioral health coordinating council supervisor. The pre-assessment room now is used for health department staff training.

Clients will meet privately with a triage specialist, Malott said, in an area now used to discuss dental treatment.

The area currently used for WIC, immunization and dental waiting will be reconfigured into a living room to allow clients to decompress. They can stay up to 23 hours, Malott said. A wall will separate the triage center from health department operations.

The county hopes to hire about 10 employees for triage by April, with services to begin following staff training, Malott said.

Telepsychiatry is the county's response to the Center for Human Services'December decision to suspend new clients from its psychiatric program because of declining funding. An individual with severe and persistent mental illness will schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist via video call.

Telepsychiatry will be located to the west of the triage center in space now used by health department staff for office support. That service should begin in 30 to 45 days, Malott said.

The FUSE (Frequent User System Engagement) program will locate, beginning next month, in unoccupied space on the building's fourth floor. FUSE will identify, in each of the next five years, 10 individuals with severe and chronic mental illness -- who have used homeless services, emergency departments and law enforcement -- to address their behavioral health problems and link them to support services.

Contact Paul Swiech at (309) 820-3275. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_swiech

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