Voters in Will County and four DuPage County townships will decide if they want to fund a measure to ensure residents have access to the mental health, substance abuse, and developmental disability services they need.
On the Nov. 8 ballot across Will County and in Lisle, Naperville, Winfield and Addison townships in DuPage County is a referendum asking each to create and fund a community mental health board, also known as 708 boards for the state law that allows them to be established.If approved by one or all of the townships, an annual tax would be levied at an amount of up to 0.15%. For residents of Will County, the annual tax rate can’t exceed .05%.
A 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages of 10 to 14 and 25 to 34. It’s the third leading cause for ages 15 to 24 and the fourth for those aged 35 to 44. Kerger said the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be long-lasting, whether it’s second-graders who are behind socially because they didn’t attend in-person kindergarten or those who developed post-traumatic stress disorder or mental illness as a result of isolation or losses.The concept of community mental health boards is not new; there are about 80 in the state.
With larger governing bodies, funding typically goes to the area of greatest need, “and that might not always be in your community,” Murray said. Kerger said her nonprofit, NAMI DuPage, serves between 15,000 and 20,000 DuPage residents per year through various mental health programs. Funds they receive from a township provide more programs and services in that specific community, she said.In Bloomingdale Township, NAMI DuPage provides services to more than 1,500 people annually, most of whom would not be able to receive them without the township grant, she said.
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