Geneva Mental Health Board awards $200K to 15 service providers

GENEVA – The Geneva Mental Health Board announced the award of $200,000 in grants to 15 nonprofit agencies that serve Geneva residents in the areas of mental health, addiction and developmental delays.

Mental health board chairwoman Suzy Shogren presented the annual awards at the Dec. 4 City Council meeting.

The organizations and their allocations are:

• Association for Individual Development - $35,375

• Ecker Center for Behavioral Health - $31,570

• TriCity Family Services - $24,430

• Lazarus House - $17,565

• Fox Valley Hands of Hope - $12,785

• National Alliance on Mental Illness - $11,145

• Elderday - $9,570

• Valley Sheltered Workshop - $9,150

• The Lighthouse Foundation - $8,850

• HorsePower Therapeutic Riding - $8,675

• Fox Valley Special Recreation - $7,730

• Suicide Prevention Services - $7,715

• The Joshua Tree Community - $7,060

• DayOnePact - $4,285

• Easter Seals DuPage and Fox Valley - $4,095

“Just a few weeks ago at our Nov. 14 meeting, the board carried out its primary responsibility of allocating grant funds,” Shogren said. “This year, 15 different organizations who provide services for mental health, developmental disability and/or substance abuse/addiction, presented their monetary request for funding, which totaled $284,695. Through extensive review and discussion, the board carried out the funding process, allocating the available grant funds of $200,000.”

Shogren said the agencies provided services to 1,896 Geneva residents, or about 9% of the city’s population of 21,544 who accessed these resources “at time of crisis or need.”

What the 15 agencies provide includes programming support, activities that increase life skills, crisis intervention, permanent supportive housing, therapeutic services for those with dementia, grief support, education for nutrition and wellness, adult respite day services, individual equine assisted therapy, 24-hour emergency shelter, transitional living, homelessness prevention, critical treatment for substance abuse, prevention and intervention crisis counseling for depression or suicidal ideation, as well as school education programs, she said.

“This past Oct. 31 marked the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s signing of the Community Mental Health Act,” Shogren said. “As a member of the Association of Community Mental Health Authority of Illinois, the Geneva Mental Health Board recognizes the importance of this landmarked bill and how it transformed mental health policy by promoting community-based services over institutionalization. In 1969, Illinois responded to the Community Mental Health Act by passing Illinois House Bill 708, which allowed for provisions under the Community Mental Health Act to be carried out by creation of mental health boards.”

Mental Health Board member Christine Kautz provided statistics from NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, that one in five adults in the U.S. will experience a mental health condition each year and that 75% of lifetime mental health conditions start by the age of 24.

“Over 17% of individuals over 15 years old have been or are being treated for depression,” Kautz said. “Rates are rising highest among women, young adults, Black and Hispanic adults. Four out of every 10 … individuals 15 years or older have a family member with depression or anxiety.”

In a report from TriCity Family Services, Kautz said in fiscal 2023, the agency served 144 individuals and 44 of their family members in Geneva for therapeutic services.

“They also saw a significant increase post-pandemic – as many have,” Kautz said. “They are also able now, post-pandemic, to get out into the community, into schools. They’re doing programs such as Creating Calm in the Storm, what our children need now. It’s an emotional wellness program responding to anxious feelings.”

TriCity Family Services also provides a program called Compass for fourth and fifth graders, a Star program for third graders, a Trek program for sixth graders and True North for sixth to eighth graders, Kautz said.

“Think about somebody that you know who maybe has received services or is currently receiving services,” Kautz said. “And then think of the people that probably need them who are still suffering, who are not able to get there. So that’s why we get to do the work that we do for the outreach that our service providers provide. And it’s obviously very needed.”