Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – If an effort to form a 708 mental health board in Sangamon County is successful, they’ll have to figure out a way to provide funding for various mental health organizations and initiatives.
The Sangamon County Mental Health Commission — formed in the wake of the death of Sonya Massey at the urging of the Massey Commission — learned Wednesday how Winnebago County was able to successfully get around two thirds of voters more than five years ago to approve an increase in the county sales tax for mental health efforts.
“People said right away they want more mental health services in the community,” said Dick Kunnert, vice president, Winnebago County Community Mental Health Commission. “The second thing, they said, they were worried that the County Board will take your money, and it will end up doing something other than for mental health and addiction. And we took that seriously.
Kunnert worked with such boards throughout his career, and says his county was successful in getting laws changed so that such money couldn’t be used for anything else.
Voters there approved the sales tax increase in 2020, and renewed it again last year, in margins similar to its initial approval.
The Rockford-area board now funds more than 40 mental health initiatives annually, with around $20 million in annual sales tax revenues.
Kunnert says his commission, and Rockford-area residents, have made waves in a short time.
“(We have been successful) keeping behavioral health problems out of the ER’s of the three hospitals in the community,” said Kunnert. “There has been a sixty percent reduction in that category within the community, because the police and fire departments are working to find alternatives to having people either go to the emergency room or put them in jail.”
Kunnert says long term, the Sangamon County committee will have to have people running it that are in it for the long haul, as sometimes desire to work on mental health matters can wane. Another success, he says, is the placement of co-responders in the county’s 911 call center most of the day, and a number of other initiatives.
The formation of a Sangamon County Mental Health Commission was one of the first recommendations of the Massey Commission, and it’s now only a few months old.
