‘It’s going to be a game changer’: DuPage’s Crisis Recovery Center opening soon in Wheaton

DuPage County’s new $25.8 million Crisis Recovery Center stands out in more ways than one.

With a glass-paneled entrance, the lobby is filled with mood-boosting daylight and instantly puts visitors at ease. It’s the first sign that this place is a refuge.

When officials cut the ribbon on the center in Wheaton Wednesday, they’ll celebrate a groundbreaking moment: The project’s advocates say the facility is unlike any other in the state.

“It’s missing in our care for mental health and addiction, and I feel that it’s going to be a game changer,” DuPage County Board Chair Deb Conroy said.

Expected to open the first week of September, the center will be available around the clock on the county health department campus and serve as an alternative to hospital emergency departments or law enforcement intervention.

The goal is to stabilize those in crisis and provide an ongoing care plan — all within less than 24 hours in most cases, particularly in the adult and youth mental health pods. There’s also a separate unit that will provide a range of services for people with substance use issues.

“It’s a very soothing, healing type of atmosphere, whichever of the three hubs that you’re in,” Conroy said.

Someone facing a crisis can call the health department’s hotline at (630) 627-1700 or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The department can also deploy a mobile crisis response team. Now, the center’s opening means that people have “someone to call, someone to respond and somewhere to go.”

“We’re going to figure it out’

The lobby has globe lighting, wood accents and moss wall art. Wight & Co., the architectural firm for the project, incorporated elements of nature-oriented “biophilic” design.

“All of those kinds of different nature themes come together to promote that healing environment that you won’t find elsewhere,” said Adam Forker, the county health department’s executive director.

Families will walk in that main entrance. EMTs and police also will bring people to the center through a dedicated drop-off space.

“We know that currently, sometimes it can be a lengthy process doing that handoff at the emergency room,” Forker said. “Our goal is to get first responders back out onto the street in about 10 minutes.”

At full capacity, the center will be able to care for roughly 15,000 people a year.

“Calling 988 versus 911, coming to the CRC versus going to the emergency room, that takes a large change in culture, and we’ll get there,” said Lori Carnahan, the health department’s deputy director of behavioral health. “We just need to make sure that the entire community is aware of this resource.”

The center will be staffed by a diverse team — ranging from peer specialists with lived experience, to crisis counselors and psychiatric nurses, and including access to a psychiatrist or advanced practice nurse, depending on an individual’s needs.

Forker stressed the center is a voluntary facility. In a unit for teens and children, there are semiprivate spaces, a more private family room and a common area. The adult unit has calming earth-tone colors.

“This is not a place that you should feel any type of stigma around,” Conroy said.

The center also will link people to community resources and partner organizations that provide housing, food, transportation and other services. Next door is the health department’s existing 12-bed adult crisis residential unit.

“We’re going to figure it out, and then we’re going to link you with a really nice plan,” Carnahan said.

The substance use unit offers adults sobering beds — a safe space to sober up. A form of withdrawal management also will be available.

“We will have EMTs on staff,” Carnahan said. “It’s a step below a hospital, but we know that many, many people can fit within that context and don’t need the full hospitalization.”

The health department has said the center can help reduce unnecessary emergency room visits. That allows hospitals to reserve those “resources for heart attacks, broken bones, things we can’t do anything about,” Forker said.

Upstairs is for staff and includes a new call center. If a crisis counselor had a tough phone call, they also have a quiet room where they can decompress.

“This is just as important for staff as it is for the clients that we’re serving,” Carnahan said.

A ‘standard-bearer’

County board members dedicated $15.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds for the project. In addition, Conroy helped secure $5.5 million from the Rebuild Illinois capital plan when she was a state lawmaker. The health department also provided $5 million, including a $1 million grant secured by U.S. Rep. Sean Casten.

“It’s unique. It’s amazing. It’s the first of its kind, and it’s ours,” said county board member Sam Tornatore, president of the DuPage Board of Health.

It’s a DuPage initiative, but the center will stabilize and support anyone in crisis who comes through the doors, no matter where they reside.

Conroy would love to see a satellite location in the county and “other areas of the state, as well as other states, model what we’re doing.”

“This is kind of the standard-bearer, and I think we can continue to grow from this,” she said.

Conroy previously chaired the Illinois House mental health and addiction committee.

“One of the most prevalent things that I continuously heard, besides the obvious challenges of getting mental health care and addiction health care, was that families had nowhere to go for children, for their young people,” she said.

Conroy took the helm of the county board in 2022.

“I said, ‘All right, we’re doing this … and I want to include a children’s hub,’” she recalled.

“We put the right people at the table,” Conroy said ahead of the unveiling. “Everybody had the same vision.”

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