CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Activists and members of Chicago City Council said the Lightfoot Administration needs to prioritize youth mental health in its 2023 budget, in part by expanding a program that puts social workers at the scene of a mental health crisis — rather than police.
American Friends Service Committee worker Debbie Southorn said young people know they need increased mental health access.
"And that includes the crisis response teams that are not police because we have a generation that's been traumatized by the police," Southorn said.
Southorn said youth, especially Black and brown youth, need mental health resources but can't find them where they'd be most accessible.
"It's no secret that they are experiencing outrageous amounts of trauma: the trauma of losing their homes, the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trauma of losing loved ones to violence, and they are lucky if their school has one social worker," Southorn said.
Social worker Elena Gormley said whenever she has had to plan an escape route or redirect upset people, it has involved police or other social workers — not clients.
“People in crisis aren’t scary,” Gormley said. “They are scared.”
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez (33rd) said she wants the city to redirect funds to social workers while the number of empty police positions grows.
“200 of those 917 vacancies — that right now are not providing any safety for anybody because they’re empty — lets fill them up with people who can actually take care of the mental health crisis,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez pointed to the in police custody suicide of Irene Chavez, a veteran believed to have been experiencing PTSD when she was picked up in December 2021, as an example of why the city needs more mental health services.
“If we had 24-hour walk-in crisis centers and a real response to the mental health crisis, I think that Irene would be alive today,” she said.
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) says the public has been demanding more social workers amid growing mental health problems..
“And this budget — this budget where the mayor brags about having a surplus — this is the budget and the time to get it done,” he said.
Both alderpersons are pushing for hearings on a proposal Rodriguez introduced two years ago.
The proposal aims to keep crisis centers open 24 hours each day and expand the pilot program that has only social workers, rather than police officers or a combination of officers and social workers, responding to crisis calls.
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