Center for Mental Health

The Four Pillars of Recovery

One of every four Americans struggles with a mental health issue; two children in every classroom in America.  Mental illness is the leading cause of disability…more than respiratory diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes combined! 

With proper treatment, those struggling with mental health challenges can live very productive lives, while a lack of treatment can have devastating affects on the individual and family.  Sadly, the level of untreated mental illness remains frighteningly high.  This is due in part to the stigma associated with mental health, and also to the lack of healthcare options for the poor and disenfranchised. 

Thanks to the Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health in Arlington Heights, adults and children who struggle with the challenges of poverty and mental illness have somewhere to go for treatment.  These services are an extension of the Alexian Brothers’ 800 year tradition of caring service to those who otherwise are forgotten by society.  

Along with the traditional services one can find at a typical medical practice, The Alexian Brothers Center also uniquely addresses four pillars of recovery: Early Intervention for Children and Adolescents, Work, Housing and Charity Care.

Early Identification and Treatment for Children and Adolescents

Growing up is hard enough.  Growing up with mental or developmental disabilities is untenable.  The Alexian Brothers Center’s licensed child clinical specialists help children and young adults overcome depression, anxiety and other emotional and behavioral issues through individual and group therapy, education programs, psychiatry, and medication monitoring and follow-up.

Children are our most important and most vulnerable assets.  You have the power to help them achieve their highest potential.

Work

Nine of every ten Alexian Brothers Center clients are unemployed and they all want to work.  That’s because work is a basic human value.  It provides financial freedom, self-esteem, confidence, and gives meaning and purpose to one’s life.  Clients want to have an answer when someone asks them, “What do you do for a living?”

To promote individual recovery through employment, the Center’s vocational program teaches clients to write resumes, apply and interview for jobs, dress for success and become productive.  While some clients can work independently in local businesses, those who cannot still have the opportunity to work: as part of a “Vocational Visions” team, complete with an on site job coach.

When clients bag groceries, stock shelves or work in an office, they are engaged in the process of recovery.  That is, they are building self-confidence, earning wages and making a positive contribution to their community.  You can help by underwriting vocational services to provide someone with the hope employment brings.

Housing

Housing is essential, especially for those who need structure and normalcy to recover from their mental illness.  Yet nearly 9,000 mentally ill persons in Chicagoland have no place to live. 

The Alexian Brothers Center operates two long-term residences where clients with nowhere else to go can obtain housing, learn self-sufficiency, build independent living skills, develop and maintain relationships and access community resources.  At each facility, clients learn to manage their symptoms and reintegrate into the community.  The program is very successful, but housing units are limited and the waiting list is long.   

The challenge is that some clients qualify for the residential program but are unable to participate because they cannot pay their share of rent.  Even if they can pay rent, they often come out of homelessness and lack personal essentials, such as clothing, toiletries, bedding and household goods.  You can provide financial assistance to help cover rent and provide supplies for basic human needs.

Charity Care for the Poor and Uninsured

While northwest suburban Cook County is typically associated with middle- to high-income households, the down economy, coupled with the region’s changing demographics, have increased the number of individuals living in poverty.  In some areas, the homeless population now rivals that of low-income south suburban communities. 

Today, 85 percent of the Center’s more than 2,500 clients live at or below the federal poverty level.  The waiting list swells as the number of uninsured grows.  Your support of the Charity Care Fund will ensure that the Center’s continuum of mental health services is available to each and every person who needs it, regardless of their ability to pay, without compromising the Center’s financial capacity to help future generations of at-risk adults and children.