Families seek housing for the mentally ill in Northwest suburbs

After Judy Graff's daughter was hospitalized for a suicide attempt brought on by mental illness, officials referred her to a nursing home - at the age of 21.

Graff couldn't believe it, but she found there was nowhere else for her daughter to go in Chicago's Northwest suburbs. Homes for people with mental illness either didn't match her daughter's needs or had long waiting lists.

Then Graff found what she needed in California: a long-term, supportive residential group home that could transition her daughter to independent living. Nine years later, her daughter is doing much better.

"Had she not been there," Graff said, "I don't know that she'd be alive."

Families like Graff's will try to convince lawmakers of the need for housing for the mentally ill at a public forum at 6:30 p.m. today at the Palatine Public Library.

Their plea will be part of a wide-ranging forum on how the state is failing to meet the needs of those with mental illness and the toll it's taking on families and society.

State Rep. Kathy Ryg, who will attend with several other state legislators, hopes a proposal to get more Medicaid funding, in part from the federal stimulus plan, will generate millions more dollars for community-based mental health services.

Typically, families take care of their loved ones with mental illness as long as they can. Eventually, the children may become combative, or require supervision when the parents are at work, and need professional counseling and monitoring to make sure they're getting proper medications and treatment.

Some parents keep their adult children at home so long, they're now elderly and unable to care for them or worried what will happen when they die.

That's why the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) is working to open a home that would feature one-bedroom apartments for 12 to 20 people in the next two or three years.

The home might have an on-site supervisor, or an office where counselors and case workers could meet with residents, according to Hugh Brady, president of the Barrington-area chapter of NAMI. No specific location has been chosen, but it would likely be in Northwest Cook County.

The cost is unknown, but the bulk of it would likely come from government sources.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill forum

Meeting with legislators on housing and service needs for the mentally ill in the suburbs.

When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. today

Where: Palatine Public Library, 700 N. North Court, Palatine