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Schneider hosts talk on gun violence, mental health

Chicago Tribune (IL) - 8/22/2014

Aug. 22--More mental health programs and treatment are needed in Chicago and Lake County, members of a panel discussion on reducing gun violence argued.

The discussion -- convened in Deerfield by Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider -- explored the intersection of gun violence and mental health issues, and touched on resources available in Lake County.

"You can't continue to put a stigma on mental illness if you want people to deal with it constructively," Schneider said.

Some on the gun violence panel, such as Deerfield Police Chief John Sliozis, said the programming and treatment available for people with mental health illnesses has declined in recent years.

"Whether it's the hospitals or county health or those other organizations that used to provide that -- the treatment's not coming from them," Sliozis said.

Jerry Zachar, a social worker with the Deerfield Police Department, recalled a recent example of a 13-year-old boy with suicidal ideations who had two days of "partial hospitalization" before his insurance stopped paying for his treatment.

"There's no place for him or doesn't seem to be a place for him to get the appropriate treatment," Zachar said.

The Lake County Health Department and Nicasa, a Lake County organization that provides mental health and substance abuse services, provide some treatment for people with mental illnesses, said Tony Beltran, executive director of the Lake County Health Department.

In 2013, more than 4,700 adults and children received mental health care through the county health department's six health centers, said Carolyn Waller, spokeswoman for the Lake County Health Department.

The problem is more one of funding and reimbursement, Beltran said.

Many of the patients are on Medicaid and the payment rates are insufficient. Therefore, they may not have access to a high level of care.

"(The reimbursement issue) dissuades other groups from coming in because they can't make ends meet if they don't get enough funding from the payers," Beltran said.

Nicole Chen, director of an advocacy group called Moms Demand Action, said her work focuses more on advocating for expanded background checks for guns.

"From our perspective, addressing mental illness and making sure people have access to care is extremely important, but it's not really at the heart of the gun violence epidemic," Chen said.

Hugh Brady, the board president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a potential problem with universal background checks is that they could actually discourage people with mental illnesses from getting treatment if the checks meant they couldn't have a gun.

Sliozis also said that background checks had limitations.

"You read every day about shootings on the streets of Chicago," Sliozis said in a separate interview. "Those people are not about to go through a licensing process. That's the question: How do you stop the access of the firearms into their hands?"

Schneider said legislation expanding background checks could be written so as to not discourage people who need mental health treatment from receiving it.

"There's no single solution," he said. "Programs have to work together. What may make common sense on one hand, may have complications on the other."

The discussion, which was closed to the public, was Schneider's third roundtable discussion on gun violence in the past year or so, he said, with past panelists including victims of gun violence, members of the National Rifle Association and law enforcement officials.

Schneider faces a challenge in the general election this fall from Bob Dold, of Deerfield, who represented the district before he was ousted by Schneider two years ago.

Schneider, who has co-sponsored legislation to expand background checks and make gun trafficking a federal crime, said mental health is a critical piece of the conversation on how to curb gun violence.

Schneider also participated in a tense public forum on gun violence in Deerfield in April, alongside state Rep. Scott Drury, a Highwood Democrat.

Gun rights advocates, many of whom had come to the forum from outside the area, packed that meeting to express their concerns over what they perceived to be unnecessary attempts to restrict their rights.

The congressman said the various meetings have informed his perspective on how to best represent his constituents.

In Lake County, there's evidence that shows a growing need for mental health services, officials said.

In the 2010-11 budget year, about 1,210 children accessed a children's crisis program operated by the Lake County Health Department, Waller said. In the 2012-13 budget year, that number grew to about 1,510.

Likewise, in 2010, more than 2,900 adults called the county health department's mental health crisis hotline. Last year, that number grew by more than a thousand.

gtrotter@tribune.com

Twitter: @NorthShoreTrib

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