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* From last July…
For the 12th time since January, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith has been held in contempt of court.
Judge Patrick Murphy issued the contempt order following a motion from the Cook County Public Guardian’s office. This latest case involves a 15-year-old girl who has been stuck in a psychiatric hospital even though she was cleared to be released January 14, 2022.
And that practice of holding kids in psychiatric hospitals because there’s nowhere else to put them has consequences far beyond those particular children. It crowds out other kids in need.
* WBEZ’s Sarah Karp and Kristen Schorsch…
What’s unfolding at St. Bernard is happening across Illinois. For the most vulnerable kids who need immediate help, there are only around 30 hospitals in the entire state — making up about 15% of all hospitals — that have pediatric psychiatric beds. And not all take a large portion of Medicaid patients. Hospitals with the most psych beds for children are concentrated in the suburbs and near Chicago’s West Side, according to 2020 state data, the most recent year available.
Here’s the ripple effect: Children across Illinois are crisscrossing the state chasing the same beds, traveling perhaps hundreds of miles from their homes.
* Their story is about way more than the shortage of pediatric psychiatric hospital beds, however…
Twenty years ago Illinois developed a safety net for low-income children — like the 13-year-old in the oversized shirt — who are in mental health crisis and have Medicaid health insurance or none at all. The state works with more than two dozen nonprofits, including Ada S. McKinley Community Services, where Sadler works, to try to quickly assess and find help for these children after a call is made to a hotline. The program is called Screening, Assessment and Support Services, or SASS.
Illinois mental health providers call the program an essential lifeline, a godsend for families at a difficult moment. But a six-month investigation by WBEZ, involving dozens of interviews and a review of hundreds of documents and state records, finds the state is failing to ensure thousands of children are getting any follow-up help, let alone the type of intensive behavioral health support many need.
WBEZ found this vital safety net is riddled with holes. It’s buckling under the weight of a youth mental health crisis that is grappling with staff shortages and greater need. SASS workers can be a real help, but they are hamstrung — they don’t have enough places to send kids in distress.
As one provider put it, SASS is like a Cadillac driving nowhere. […]
Complaints that children in crisis are waiting hours just for a SASS assessment — a response is required within 90 minutes — are up 50% in the last year, even though state officials say they track this and hold SASS providers accountable. That’s according to WBEZ’s review of state records and data obtained through public records requests. Last year, about 46,000 SASS calls from across Illinois required a quick response.
And the state doesn’t even know if all children in crisis screened by a SASS worker were connected to mental health support, typically inpatient or outpatient care, let alone whether they actually received treatment. After months of asking, the state couldn’t provide screening outcome data for about 40% of the cases that required the 90-minute response over five years. More than 220,000 calls required a quick response during that time period, from 2018-22.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 10:19 am
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I will be surprised if JB elects to make early childhood development a key plank in what could end up being a roadmap to the White House and do absolutely nothing for DCFS in tandem. The kids in those systems…talk about the most vulnerable of society.
Comment by DuPage Dad Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 10:27 am
It is real simple economics at every stage. Employees at all levels of child services (including everyone from orderlies/transportation drivers to social workers to therapists to attorneys) are underpaid and overworked. Heck, even foster parents fall into this category.
Every time it comes up, a bunch of legislators make a bunch of speeches and issue press releases, but nothing ever fundamentally changes. DCFS has, for at least as long as I can remember, been constantly trying to figure out how to make due with the resources they have. Then the Rauner years just absolutely gutted things, not just because of state resources, but also because of how the non-profits got impacted by reductions in state funding.
End result, now DCFS is in an even deeper hole to try to climb out of.
Comment by Former DCFS Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 10:28 am
Great reporting by WBEZ. We are lucky to have some very good reporters in Illinois.
4 years of failing these children by this Governor leads me to believe that his posturing for President of the United States is a mistake. He just doesn’t have the character to be President.
Comment by Back to the Future Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 11:04 am
The Cadillac analogy is a good one. I’ve worked with SASS in multiple counties. They are effective. We need more workers. The problem remains that psychiatric services for children, both short and long term, are in crisis. They do an excellent job with linkage to the limited number of outpatient programs. Showing the overlap with law enforcement I can personally tell you that lots of cops end up dealing with children psychiatric issues. Way more often than not they do pretty well. They also spend hours counseling, transporting, seeking and waiting for admissions, and sometimes unfortunately, incarcerating. When I here defund the police my mind immediately goes to expansion of inpatient and outpatient services. In short exactly as it is needed. No serious Democrat wants to defund cops ( that’s a GOP talking point ) but hey do want to take on the mental health burdens and free up police time for more actual crime fighting. Until you’ve spent 8 hours dealing with a single mental health crisis you have no idea how droning it is for everyone. Increase funding to give everyone better options
Comment by Stormsw7706 Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 11:07 am
Great story. Thank you for posting it.
Comment by Chicago Dad Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 12:09 pm
=Complaints that children in crisis are waiting hours just for a SASS assessment=
Boy, just a few hours would be a huge improvement. We have been waiting 4 hours or more the past 6 months at least.
Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 2:17 pm
Even JB’s biggest fans can’t defend him here.
This is some horrible management and shows his true self. It looks as if he doesnt even care at this point considering how long this has been going on.
Comment by The Dude Wednesday, Mar 8, 23 @ 5:16 pm