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Serving the mentally ill: some good news from Springfield

EDITOR: There is a dearth of copy in the press about mental illness and its sufferers. Thus the October and November issues of Illinois Issues that printed Judy Emerson's articles, "Homelessness: a side effect of mental illness" and "Serving the mentally ill: the policy knot," were a pleasure to read for parents of mentally ill children.

Since Emerson completed her interviews throughout the state, a new vocational and life needs program for the mentally ill has come to Springfield. It is under the auspices of the Department of Psychiatry at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The whole program, with its several facets — vocational, recreational, residential, help with SSI payments and medications and more — is called the Community Support Network. You name it: The director and his staff do it for the members of the group.

The Community Support Network is patterned after a similar project in Madison, Wis. The latter has been in operation for seven years and has been extremely successful.

The vocational feature of the community support network takes place at a motel in Springfield. Two staff people from the network support system are in charge of eight or more members. The staff does all the training in housekeeping. The members prepare the motel rooms for the next occupants. They are paid minimum wages. Some haven't worked for over five years. You can imagine how much a pay check means to them and also the pride in a job well-done. Some with staff help have moved on to other jobs.

Members are picked up every Wednesday evening for volley ball. Once a month they bowl. For recreation other than sports, the staff had a summer picnic by the lake, a hayride and wiener roast this fall and a Halloween party full of treats.

The Community Support System has answered many needs of the mentally ill by finding them housing in town and guiding them when they are settled with budgeting, compliance with medications and much more.

Lynn Houser
Families and Friends of the Mentally Ill (AMI)


Nursing home violations

EDITOR: Your November 1985 article, "Improving Nursing Home Care," incorrectly stated that the Nursing Home Care Reform Act was only three months old.

This act took effect in 1980, not last July, and required the Department of Public Health to publish a monthly list of violators. This list was never published. It also established fines for violations and allowed the department to issue a conditional license for type "A" violations.

Legislation that took effect three months ago replaced the monthly list with a quarterly list, increased existing fines, and extended the conditional license to include "B" violations. State government and the nursing home industry have had six years to comply with current nursing home laws.

David Mendel Patt
Executive Director
Illinois Citizens for Better Care

Another bunch of males

EDITOR: Seeing Mr. Jackson's letter in the November 1985 Illinois Issues gives me the courage and the impetus to put my thoughts on paper as well. When I saw the outcome of the poll (yes, it was a poll and you could only deal with what came in, I realize), I thought: Oh, yeah! another bunch of males, but at least there is one black.

I had uneasy feelings reading Mr. Jackson's profile: sensationalized, I thought.

And I will protest the use and question the advisability of conducting any such "poll" today when the result is just that of parading a bunch of males across our consciousness again.

I appreciate your fine article on Lynn Martin in this month's issue. Yes, you do a fairly good job of raising issues of interest to women and men in the magazine and of profiling outstanding women — perhaps that is the problem. There are, understandably, not enough of those — and it's necessary to do more digging — and to take a critical look at the magazine's ability to present an unbiased picture of black accomplishments.

Camille J. Compo
Charleston, Ill.

January 1986/Illinois Issues/7


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