Living Room Wellness Center provides jail alternative for those in mental health crisis

WAUKEGAN – With an expansion of the Living Room Wellness Center in Waukegan, Lake County sheriff’s deputies have a new option when they encounter people in mental health crisis.

Instead of jail, people in need of care can go to the center for treatment.

The option not only will help a growing number of people living with mental illness get the help they need, it aligns with Lake County’s efforts to reduce the jail population, said Lt. Christopher Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

The Living Room Wellness Center, 1730 Washington St., in Waukegan opened in August 2020 to offer those in need free crisis intervention and peer counseling, as well as basic needs such as food, clean clothes, showers and transportation.

During an Aug. 19 grand reopening of the center, law enforcement and community leaders announced an expansion of the center’s service hours – 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends, with plans for the center soon to be open 24 hours a day.

“Ultimately, if a minor crime is committed, the deputy has discretion,” Covelli said. “Where it’s clearly a mental health issue, they can take them to this facility instead of jail if they’re willing to go. The great thing about it is it provides another option for our deputies.”

The goal eventually is to provide law enforcement agencies throughout Lake County with the option to bring residents in need to the center, Covelli said.

Run by the Waukegan-based nonprofit Independence Center, the Living Room Wellness Center is set up like a home.

Filled with couches, reclining chairs, an indoor waterfall, a TV and other “living room” components, the center offers a comfortable, soothing environment, Covelli said.

“Music can be played,” he said. “It’s a place to really relax and read, whatever the individual is wishing for at the time.”

Funding from the Independence Center, two grants from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and a grant from the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office helped pay for the extra staff, supplies such as a refrigerator and coffee makers, and other needs required for the expansion of services, Covelli said.

Since its opening, the center has served more than 300 people, providing an alternative to the emergency room for those facing mental health struggles, Judith Shaffer, board president for Independence Center, said in a statement.

Those who come to the center are referred to as guests and paired with a peer counselor.

“The Living Room Wellness Center, a nationally recognized model of support for people with mental illness, provides a welcoming, safe, comfortable, inviting environment that aims to decrease unnecessary hospitalizations, reduce our local jail population and develop a peer-based support network for every individual who reaches out for help,” Shaffer said.

The center’s new availability to sheriff’s deputies is “huge,” Covelli said.

“There are many individuals who are living with mental illness and sometimes if front-line deputies encounter people in a crisis the options are very limited on what exactly they can do to help solve the situation,” he said. “This provides a whole other avenue where our staff can bring individuals into the facility and connect them with immediate resources versus a referral later.”

If someone refuses to go to the center, deputies can refer them to the sheriff’s office’s Crisis Outreach and Support Team, a partnership with the Lake County Health Department. Along with those in mental health crisis, COAST has helped those suffering from opioid overdose. Deputies work together with health department counselors, who can refer those in need to appropriate services.

The Living Room Wellness Center is now an added entry point for COAST, as well as a participant of the Lake County Opioid Initiative’s A Way Out program. A Way Out is a first-responder program designed to connect individuals to substance use treatment and services.

“Jails are intended to be a place for violent pretrial detainees, not for those living mental illness,” Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg said in a statement. “We have been working with Independence Center and our criminal justice partners for a long time to make the expansion of the Living Room Wellness Center a reality and this is an exciting first step toward providing proper care and placement for our Lake County residents who are in need of proper resources.”