Sinnissippi Centers expanding behavioral health services in Ogle County

BYRON – Behavioral health care is expanding in Ogle County as Sinnissippi Centers prepares to open its new Byron office in March.

The new location, at 212 W. Blackhawk Drive in Byron, will have a full array of services for children, adults and families that are offered at other outpatient offices. Some of those include substance use treatment, psychiatric services, intervention services and peer support services, Sinnissippi President and CEO Stacie Kemp said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Like Sinnissippi’s other outpatient offices, it also will offer intensive community-based services called community support teams for individuals who often struggle getting to the office for services because of their mental illness, Kemp said.

Established in 1966, Sinnissippi provides crisis support, individual and family counseling, addiction treatment and more to individuals in Carroll, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson and Whiteside counties. It currently has office locations in Dixon, Freeport, Mt. Carroll, Oregon, Rochelle and Sterling.

The center started discussing the possibility of expanding services in Ogle County due to increased demand in 2023. Around that same time, the Ogle County Mental Health Board agreed to contribute some additional funding for more services.

“In a two-year period, we had increased staffing by 13%, we’d increased clients served by 44% and client service hours by 14% all in Ogle County,” Kemp said.

When deciding on a location for the additional office, the center looked at where its current Ogle County clients were coming from geographically, and a majority of them were traveling from the northern part of the county, she said.

The center landed on Byron because it’s one of the larger cities in the county, where people might go to buy groceries or pick up a prescription at a pharmacy.

“As we build up capacity, we’ll build fee for service, so we’ll build a client funding source, and that’s what will help us be sustainable moving forward,” Kemp said.

The center already has hired an office supervisor for the new location, but it’s actively hiring for clinicians and clerical positions.

“Our primary goal is to expand the number of individuals that we’re able to serve in Ogle County and residents of Ogle County,” Kemp said.

Ogle County is now the only county that Sinnissippi serves that has three outpatient offices. In most counties, the center only has one location.

Sinnissippi’s goal is to serve about 300 additional individuals in Ogle County after the first year of opening its Byron location. Once it is fully staffed and operational, Kemp said, it hopes to serve about 800 individuals in the county each year.

For information or to apply, visit sinnissippi.org.