Rockford resident Tracy Meinert remembers her first mental breakdown as a teenager.
She was treated for bipolar disorder, a mental illness characterized by severe mood swings ranging from extreme depression to mania, at Singer Mental Health Center in her 20s, and later in a nursing home. I lived here for 5 years.
In an essay for the Stepping Stones’ Instilling Hope magazine, Meinert wrote that bipolar disorder is like “losing your way in the rain on your way to a place you never wanted to go in the first place.” There are some things.
But bipolar disorder can be managed with medication and therapy, and with the help of Stepping Stones in Rockford, Meinert says she’s on her journey to recovery.
“I’m fulfilling my responsibilities and putting my support in place,” Meinert said. “Supported living, money management, medication management, definitely DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) skills. I have borderline personality traits, but they don’t define who Tracy is. It’s like my bipolar disorder doesn’t define me. It’s part of what I live with. ”
Today, Meinert, 58, lives in Stepping Stone’s 40-bed River North Building, a supported living apartment, with roommates and others she considers family.
This building is just one of the many ways Stepping Stones uses the funds it receives from the county’s 0.5% mental health sales tax to benefit residents like Meinert and the Rockford community.
Several other measures marked historic milestones for the 52-year-old Rockford-based nonprofit community mental health service provider.
Currently serving children
Until recently, Stepping Stones was a program that exclusively provided residential-based mental health services for adults.
But with funding from the county’s mental health sales tax, Stepping Stones was able to expand its reach and serve another group of people in need: children.
Stepping Stones used $500,000 received from mental health sales taxes to open a new outpatient counseling center on Murray Drive in Rockford. For the first time in Stepping Stones’ history, services have expanded to include children’s mental health treatment.
“It was a niche that we felt really needed to be filled,” Stepping Stones CEO Sue Schroeder said. “So about half of the people we see at our counseling center are under 18.”
The grant helped Stepping Stones cover the costs of purchasing, renovating and launching an 8,800 square foot counseling center. It serves people with severe mental illness who pay through Medicaid or managed care plans.
An additional $200,000 of the agency’s second-year funding went toward startup capital. The money allocated for the third year was never raised by Stepping Stones, Schroeder said. This is because the center is self-sufficient and no longer needs funding.
“Before we opened the counseling center, we were serving about 160 people each year,” Schroeder said. “This year, we’re going to be closer to about 800 people because of the increase from the counseling center. And those are people who have traditionally been underserved.”
“Incredible shock”
Supporters of continuing the mental health sales tax say it spurs the expansion of mental health and substance use disorder treatment across Rockford and Winnebago counties.
With the help of an additional $500,000 in funding from the Mental Health Commission, Stepping Stones purchases and renovates a Rockford duplex to provide 24-hour care for eight men with severe mental illness. It was turned into a group home.
Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara said the funding will help provide critical services and help close service gaps.
“We are now able to serve young people in our community,” McNamara said. “The total number of residents has more than quadrupled just because that one organization is providing services.… For as little as half a cent, you can support our city and those in need. It has an incredible impact on how they respond and treat their lives and the lives of their families.”
The 0.5% mental health sales tax, which generates about $19 million annually, will be renewed on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Jeff Kolkey writes about government, economic development and other issues for the Rockford Register-Star. He can be reached at (815) 987-1374 or by email at: [email protected] And in X @jeffkolkey.
