NAMI News - NAMI Chicago

Statement from NAMI Chicago on the Restoration of 988 LGBTQ+ Crisis Services

nami_admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:33:17 +0000

CHICAGO – NAMI Chicago welcomes the restoration of specialized LGBTQ+ crisis services through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s “Press 3” option.

As one of the largest chapters of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, we reach tens of thousands of people each year. We became a 988 call center in January 2024, and since then we have answered more than 55,000 calls.

Specialized crisis support strengthens 988 by recognizing that different communities face different barriers to care. We know this kind of support can help someone get through a moment of crisis and ultimately save lives.

Over the past several months, NAMI Chicago has consistently joined advocates, public officials, and community partners in calling publicly for the restoration of these services, including through press conferences and conversations focused on protecting access to specialized, affirming crisis support.

We are grateful to Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, The Trevor Project, Equality Illinois, and the many advocates, providers, and young people who helped push for these services to return.

Restoring this resource is an important step toward ensuring every person who reaches out for help can access responsive, affirming support. Now, the focus must be on making sure these services remain strong, accessible, and available to every young person who needs them.

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ABC 7 Chicago – Our Chicago: DJ Commando’s father shares his story during Suicide Prevention Month

nami_admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:47:05 +0000

CHICAGO (WLS) — According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 49,000 Americans died by suicide in 2024.

The number of people who thought about or attempted suicide reached into the millions. The CDC estimates 14.3 million seriously considered it, and 2.2 million attempted suicide.

September is Suicide Prevention Month. Jasmine Watkins is the chief program officer with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Chicago.

Watkins says there are signs someone might be struggling. But she says more than that, they talk about noticing changes.

“Things that you might notice would be changes in things that people are saying. People might be talking about giving away possessions or not wanting to be here or feeling hopeless, feeling like a burden, potentially. Changes in mood, appetite, sleep. Someone who usually reaches out to connect and is really connected to their community, might start isolating,” Watkins said.

The post ABC 7 Chicago – Our Chicago: DJ Commando’s father shares his story during Suicide Prevention Month first appeared on NAMI Chicago.

Why have kids’ mental health ER visits increased by 74%?

nami_admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:50:05 +0000

Matt Davison, CEO of NAMI Chicago, joins Lisa Dent to talk about how kids’ suicide ER visits have spiked. Matt talks about the importance of youth mental health education and the engagement of parents and students in recognizing signs and symptoms. For more information on NAMI Chicago, visit namichicago.org.

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Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois officials press Trump administration to restore crisis lifeline for LGBTQ+ youth

nami_admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 15:39:29 +0000

U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and others are pushing the administration to restore the “Press 3” option on the nation’s 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which previously provided specialized crisis services for LGBTQ+ youth.

Illinois officials said it’s time to put pressure on the Trump administration to restore a lifeline they say can save the lives of LGBTQ+ youth experiencing mental health crises.

Officials, including U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, are pushing the administration to restore the “Press 3” option on the nation’s 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which previously provided specialized crisis services for LGBTQ+ youth.

“These were people, perhaps on the worst days of their life, at the worst hour of their day, reaching out for someone in the darkness to help save their life,” Krishnamoorthi said at a news conference Thursday.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-8th) speaks about the effort to restore 988 during a press conference at NAMI Chicago at 224 W Hill St in River North on Thursday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The 988 Lifeline, including services for veterans and LGBTQ+ youth, was signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term. But in July 2025, the administration ended the specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth, saying the hotline would no longer “silo” those services and would instead focus on “serving all help seekers.”

Krishnamoorthi said the service was canceled as part of the administration’s “anti-DEI efforts.” The administration, however, said the “Press 3” option had exhausted the funds allocated for 988 Lifeline LGBTQ+ subnetwork services.

The administration said Congress had allocated more than $33 million for the LGBTQ+ services in 2025, but the funding was fully spent by June.

But Illinois officials said LGBTQ+ youth face a higher risk of mental health crises and should have access to specialized crisis services that provide “affirming support.”

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NAMI Chicago Hosts Press Conference Calling for Restoration of 988 LGBTQ+ Crisis Services

nami_admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:16:36 +0000

September 10, 2026

NAMI Chicago joined Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Dulce Quintero, The Trevor Project, Equality Illinois, and other partners for a press conference calling for the restoration of the specialized 988 LGBTQ+ “Press 3” option.

The service was designed to connect LGBTQ+ young people with trained crisis counselors who understand the unique challenges and barriers to care they may face. Speakers highlighted the importance of restoring this dedicated support and strengthening crisis services so people can access timely, affirming care when they need it.

NAMI Chicago has served as a 988 call center since January 2024 and has answered more than 53,000 calls from people seeking support for themselves, a loved one, or someone in their community.

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Letters to the Editor | Chicago Sun Times – Emergency departments need better grip on children’s mental health

nami_admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:09:34 +0000

Our emergency rooms are telling us something alarming about children’s mental health. We should listen. A new statewide survey of Illinois emergency departments, led by Dr. Jennifer Hoffman of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, offers one of the clearest pictures yet of what happens (and what doesn’t happen) when a child arrives at an emergency department with a purported behavioral health crisis.

Emergency care coordinators across the state do their work with dedication and skill. But many survey respondents admittedly practice at hospitals with no dedicated pediatric inpatient unit, and only about half of those have a mental health professional on site. As summarized in the report, only 56% of such providers consistently deliver every recommended element of safety planning before a child goes home. Only 25% routinely schedule a follow-up mental health appointment before discharge. Even the most skilled emergency personnel are limited by their available resources.

Answers aren’t beyond reach or reason. The study highlights how many care teams have little-to-no sensible referrals or placements available, and that emergency staff are ill-equipped to meet certain needs that extend well beyond an immediate crisis. The result is prolonged boarding. Children wait in emergency departments, sometimes longer than three days, because there is nowhere else for them to go. We would not tolerate this for a child with an urgent physical injury. Why do we expect children with mental health conditions to simply endure?

An emergency room should be one door among many, not the only door. That means investing in the continuum around the hospital: mobile crisis teams, which research links to fewer repeat emergency department visits among youth; real-time visibility into psychiatric bed availability for quicker placements when appropriate; peer and family support that begins before a crisis and continues after discharge; and community settings where a young person can stabilize with dignity. It also means better support inside the ER while children wait and wait.

This is fixable. Coordination matters. So does dedicating real resources to it. Families, policymakers, health plans, hospitals, schools and community organizations all share responsibility for building a system where fewer children reach the ER in crisis. Above all, the study underscores that we can all do better for our children’s mental health.

– Matt Davison, CEO, NAMI Chicago

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NAMI Chicago Hosts Beyond Crisis Summit to Launch New Coalition Aimed at Advancing Solutions for Serious Mental Health and Substance Use Conditions

nami_admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:42:01 +0000

For Immediate Release:
July 7, 2026

NAMI Chicago Hosts Beyond Crisis Summit to Launch New Coalition Aimed at Advancing Solutions for Serious Mental Health and Substance Use Conditions

CHICAGO — NAMI Chicago will host its inaugural Beyond Crisis Summit on July 9, 2026, at the Home Court at the Obama Presidential Center, bringing together leaders from healthcare, government, research, philanthropy, and community-based organizations to develop common understanding and identify solutions to better support people living with serious mental health and substance use conditions who repeatedly cycle through hospitals, homelessness, and legal systems. 

The summit is the kick-off for a new coalition that will focus on fostering cross-sector collaboration, knowledge sharing, and action planning to build more empathetic, effective, and coordinated systems of care and supports.

“ “Many of us know firsthand what happens when a system mainly grapples with mental health if and only if the word “crisis” is associated with it: repeated emergency room visits; law enforcement involvement; frequent inpatient admissions; detentions at the local jail; toggling between sleeping at a shelter and on the street…This summit is about exploring how we can go beyond the singular lens of crisis and consider a system of care for serious mental illnesses further upstream, before individuals are left unhoused, untreated, and disconnected from their community. We are often so focused and invested in how we grapple with mental health crises that we don’t dedicate nearly enough time, resources, or coordination about mitigating these crises altogether. It could be less expensive. Less heartbreaking. More dignified.”  - Matt Davison, CEO, NAMI Chicago

The day-long event will feature keynote speaker, Dr. Thomas Insel, one of the nation’s leading voices on the future of mental health care, panel discussions, and breakout sessions focused on evidence-based practices, and innovative models of care that can improve outcomes for individuals living with serious mental health and substance use conditions. Participants will hear from national and local experts, researchers, individuals with lived experience, and community organizations working at the forefront of behavioral health innovation.   

Through shared learning and collaborative discussion, the Beyond Crisis Summit begins our work to identify opportunities to strengthen systems of care, reduce unnecessary crisis involvement, and improve long-term outcomes for those currently cycling from one crisis to another. Following the Summit, NAMI Chicago will convene a new community coalition that is focused on advancing both the policy changes and innovative care and supports needed to move Chicago’s mental health system beyond crisis. Information about joining this coalition is available here. 

NAMI Chicago serves more than 40,000 people each year through crisis support, care coordination, education, outreach, and advocacy. In June, NAMI Chicago was also named a 2026 Gold recipient of Mental Health America’s Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health.

To learn more about NAMI Chicago and our work, visit www.namichicago.org

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Forty-eight leading organizations denounce DOJ opinion threatening the rights of people with disabilities

nami_admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:20:35 +0000

CHICAGO — NAMI Chicago joins with 44 other leading human service, advocacy, and legal organizations today to issue the following statement denouncing the June 18 legal opinion issued by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, which seeks to dismantle one of the nation’s most important civil rights for people with disabilities: the right to receive services in their own homes and communities.

On June 18, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) released a legal opinion that aims to dismantle one of the most important civil rights protections for people with disabilities. This new opinion declares that states will no longer be required to serve people with disabilities in their own homes and communities, contrary to current law, and that the federal rules requiring it should be thrown out.

For more than 25 years, that requirement ensuring that people with disabilities receive services in community rather than being unnecessarily institutionalized has been settled ground. The Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C. that the unjustified institutional isolation of people with disabilities is a form of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

The Olmstead decision affirmed a simple truth: people living with disabilities belong in their communities, with their families, in their jobs and schools and neighborhoods, not warehoused out of sight.

The OLC opinion seeks to gut the bedrock recognitions of Olmstead that people with mental and intellectual disability deserve dignity, respect, and equal protection under the law. It blames the very real problems of our under-resourced social service system on the very people these systems seek to serve. However, instead of investing in proven community-based supports that work, this opinion calls for the return of failed warehouses that people enter and never leave. It argues that the federal integration rules, enforced for decades by both the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, are unlawful and should be rescinded. The opinion does not change the law and sets no legal precedent. But it is a clear signal of how this administration intends to enforce, or refuse to enforce, the civil rights of people with disabilities.

This is an attack on the dignity and freedom of people living with disabilities, plain and simple. The right to live in your own community, near the people who love you, is not a bureaucratic technicality. It’s a foundational protection that enables millions of our fellow Americans the freedom to live in communities of their choice rather than holding cells.  This opinion asserts government control over where people with disabilities are allowed to exist, undermining a basic freedom enjoyed by all citizens of this country.

We have spent decades supporting people as they move out of the shadows of institutions and into the lives they choose for themselves. People with disabilities are not a problem to be managed out of view. They are our neighbors, our family members, our coworkers, our friends. In fact, much of the work that’s been accomplished over the past decades would not have been possible without the leadership and efforts of so many in our field that live with disabilities. The promise of Olmstead is a community where we all can live, work, and make a difference together. We will keep fighting for that promise. 

We call on Illinois leaders to reaffirm, in the clearest possible terms, that this state will continue to invest in community-based care and honor the integration mandate regardless of what Washington says. And we call on Illinoisans to stand together in defending community-based care and opposing these efforts to dismantle civil rights.

Supporting Organizations

•   NAMI Chicago
•   Trilogy
• Thresholds
• Gateway to Learning
• Illinois Psychiatric Society
•   Josselyn
•   Access Living
•   Legal Council for Health Justice
•   AIDS Foundation Chicago
•   Center for Housing and Health
•   Health & Medicine Policy Research Group
•   Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of IL (CBHA)
•   Rozovics Law Firm, LLC
•   NAMI Illinois
•   NAMI – Greater Mississippi Valley
•   Center for Disability & Elder Law
•   NAMI Metro Suburban
•   NAMI Kane-south, DeKalb, and Kendall Counties
•   Children’s Place Association
•   Mental Health America of Illinois
•   NAMI Lake County Illinois
•   Will County Community Mental Health Board
•   NAMI Northwest Suburbs Chicago
•   NAMI Northern Illinois
•   Citizen Action/Illinois
•   ACLU of Illinois
•   EverThrive Illinois
•   Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
•   National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Illinois Chapter
•   Inseparable
•   Equip for Equality
•   Treatment Alternatives for Stronger Communities
•   The Illinois Psychological Association
•   Healthy Illinois Campaign
•   Reuland Law, LLC
•   Alliance for Community Services
•   Humanize Long Term Care Campaign
•   Monahan Law Group, LLC
•   Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA)
•   Libenu
•   Holistic Healing Source
•   Jorwic Family
•   Illinois Alliance of Peer Professionals
•   AgeOptions
•   JCFS Chicago
•   Housing Action Illinois
•   Housing Task Force
•   Jewish United Fund

The post Forty-eight leading organizations denounce DOJ opinion threatening the rights of people with disabilities first appeared on NAMI Chicago.

Stephanie’s Story

admin_admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 01:59:56 +0000

Steph’s journey with NAMI Chicago’s In Home Recovery Support Program began with an “I got this, I want this and I taking all the support given.” When Brenda Bahena, her RSA came in to meet with Steph, all Brenda saw was goal getting, ambitious individual. Brenda jokingly said, “Do even need me?!”, Steph quickly replied, “Yes!”. She knew what goals she wanted to reach, yet kept honest with herself, knowing that she may not be able to do it alone. She needed a support crew, a “hype man” and NAMI Chicago’s RSA, Brenda was ready to do that.

After meeting weekly for some time, Steph shared with Brenda some parts of her journey. Something that for some folks is not always easy. Steph shared her time when overnight shelter was a mall parking lot. How the kind security would wake her up in the mornings and she would go to the nearest business to clean up and “cop a squat” at local restaurant booth to figure out what she would do for the rest of the day. This was Steph’s every day for a period of time. An eviction and substance use were barriers that Steph faced and she had filed away in her mind, yet knew she had to make a choice. Her RSA, Brenda, realized this was a very difficult time in her life, as it was not only emotional, but took her some time to share.

After approximately 2 years at the nursing facility, The Grove of Berwyn, Steph was set to transition back into the community via Association House and later referred to NAMI Chicago’s In Home Recovery Program (IHRS) for peer support. The IHRS program normally runs for 12 months, however, Steph accomplished to graduate from the program in 6 months. Proving to herself that she did in fact “got it and wanted it”. Meeting weekly with her RSA, they worked on multiple goals. Steph not only gained greater confidence in herself, met some new people in her community, but was also a light and inspiration to NAMI’s social circles. Post graduation, Steph reached out to her RSA, Brenda, to be a job reference. Steph not only got the job with Access living, but she also later updated Brenda, that she was promoted as the Survivors of Gun Violence Coordinator and prepping to obtain her CRSS (Certified Recovery Support Specialist). “Life was good, but it has gotten so much better. I knew everything came down to choice. How hard is that? Very because you can’t blame anyone when it goes wrong. I was given rental assistance, SNAP, Medicaid, to help align things and it helps, but nobody heals you better than you heal yourself.” was one of the last statements shared with her former RSA.

Steph is thankful for the support she received from the state along with her transition team and programs like NAMI In Home Recovery Support. An inspiration that recovery is possible.

The post Stephanie’s Story first appeared on NAMI Chicago.

David’s Story

admin_admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 01:59:56 +0000

David’s story is one of resilience and determination. After battling with alcohol and substance use, David found the power within himself to make a change. He found himself on one hot summer day, walking into a shelter making the first step in his recovery. Deciding that he was ready, perhaps, more than anything, tired. Yet ready to seek the assistance needed for his success.

David recalls a team of people in a van came by, gave him water, clean clothes, and a place to cool off from the heat. He was then transferred to Chalet Living & Rehab, where he was later connected with Trilogy. After some time at Chalet Living & Rehab, David was placed on a list to transition into the community, in his own living space. Just moments after he transition into the community, David was connected to NAMI Chicago’s In Home Recovery Support Program. His RSA, Brenda Bahena was to be his supportive peer for the next twelve months. Ensuring that David had the support he needed to ease the transition into a successful independent life.

NAMI Chicago’s In Home Recovery Support Program (IHRS) meets individuals where they are emotionally, empowering them to navigate what their recovery journey would look like. Providing tools and resources, but mainly joining them weekly as they navigate the community they live in and beyond.

David’s determination was top tier. As excited as he was to move into his own place, he recognized that it was going to be a change from his past living situation. From being unhoused to sharing a room with others in a facility where lights never turned off; David appreciated the silence. The ability to turn lights on or TVs off, yet recognized the silence could sometimes be “loud”. Yet, he made his new residence home, often getting compliments for how he took care of it.

On the top of David’s goals list was structure. After reaching abstinence of over a year from alcohol and even longer from opiates, David was looking forward to filling his days with purpose. Brenda and David would meet weekly in different areas of Chicago to learn of nice spots he can eventually go to on his own. One of their favorites, the Harold Washington Library, which is filled with resources for classes and groups to join. It opened a world of opportunity for David! He visited a group community garden, caught a free movie at the library, but most importantly, it gave him insight to what the city had to offer. Soon, David’s day was filled activities, including NAMI Chicago’s Story of Our Lives support group, which he frequents regularly.

David and his RSA, Brenda, meet weekly to catch up. Whether it’s in regard to his reconnection with family and frequent visits, navigating holidays using WRAP, along with other hurdles that come with everyday life. David now sees these hurdles as something he can overcome, while staying positive, knowing he has support from his Trilogy team, his RSA, and NAMI Chicago support groups and socials.

David is forever grateful for all those involved in his journey, “it started with the first person who gave me a chance, believed I truly wanted to get better. Leading to a domino effect of support that landed me where I am today.” His resilience and determination is one to be proud of and a great example that when we show up for ourselves and lean on the support of community resources, recovery is possible.

The post David’s Story first appeared on NAMI Chicago.