Will County Health Department to expand mental health services

Will County — The Will County Health Department has announced that it soon will be expanding mental health services at its Northern Branch Office in Bolingbrook and the Eastern Branch Office in Monee.

According to the announcement from the county health department, the expanded outpatient behavioral health services are available for adults, children and adolescents, and both branches also will be operating Mobile Crisis Response programs.

The mobile response units are used to respond to psychiatric crises in the community on a 24-hour basis, and also offer screenings and assessments before hospital admissions.

“Ever since the pandemic, there has been an uptick in the need for mental health services,” Diane Scruggs, director of the behavioral health division, said in the release. “The lesson learned from the pandemic is the importance of having in-person contact. Our clients and therapists both have voiced the value in this approach. By expanding services in the branch offices, we’re increasing the geographical accessibility of our program to our clients.”

Under the expansion, the Monee office, 5601 W. Monee-Manhattan Road, is offering outpatient mental health services, and the Bolingbrook branch, 323 Quadrangle Drive, is offering outpatient mental health services, psychiatric assessments and the 590 Crisis Care program.

The 590 Crisis Care team helps link individuals to social services that will address their needs while avoiding unneeded hospitalizations, according to the health department.

“Our office space size in Bolingbrook has essentially been doubled,” Scruggs said in the release. “That will allow us to see new clients who are geographically closer to Bolingbrook as well as those clients currently being seen at the Joliet location when the Bolingbrook location is closer to their home. We have also added a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner to Bolingbrook for adults and children."

In addition to the services in Bolingbrook and Monee, the Behavior Health Division’s main office in Joliet, 501 Ella Ave., will continue to offer outpatient mental health services, as well as psychiatric assessments, and substance use treatment and recovery services.

The Mobile Crisis Response program and 590 Crisis Care programs also have units operating out of the Joliet office.

Finally, the expansion is intended to streamline the intake process and reduce wait times between client calls and their appointments, the health department said.

The department has added multiple intake staff members and has created an option for Spanish-speaking clients to be linked to an interpreter during their initial calls.

“Our goal in this process has been to make the behavioral health services of the Will County Health Department more accessible to our residents,” Scruggs said. “We are also one of the few providers that accepts Medicaid, and we never turn away a client based on their ability to pay.”

More information about the available services can be found on the Will County Health Department's website.