County needs change 
on mental health tax

I would like to see the March 19 referendum on the Mental Health Board property tax levy voted yes. I know many individuals that have changed from loving and successful people, maybe successful students and athletes in high school or college to having episodes with severe mental illness.

Bipolar 1 and schizoaffective disorder, (which is schizophrenia with bipolar 1), has caused this. It's a traumatic lifelong crisis that affects individuals, families, homes and the community here in McHenry County.

The cycles that continue for our loved ones and the trauma of the crisis that our families continue to go through include hospitalizations after hospitalizations, homelessness and insurance issues, help only to get help when criminalized or threats of suicide or homicide.

There is no housing for severe mental illness in McHenry county and a shortage of psychiatrists and therapists. The mental health needs of our community have grown, but funding has not. I know this because I facilitate a family support group for NAMI McHenry County (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Since our return after COVID, we have had many, many families attending with their loved ones with severe mental illnesses. These families, are helpless and hopeless. Loved ones experience incarceration, hospitalization and homelessness, and the cycle continues.

Please join me in supporting this important referendum by voting "yes" to the mental health service referendum. The increase will be 0.25% for each $100 spent in our county. This could generate $12 million to $13 million per year. If passed, residents would no longer have the MHB levy on their property tax bills in 2025.

Gina McGuire

Wonder Lake