Kimberly Casey, Board Member; Susan Doig, President CEO; and Alderman Will Hall.
Because suicides among young African Americans are rising and Chicago’s South Side is a mental health service desert, Susan Doig, president of Trilogy, has a mission to change that scenario and held a wall-breaking ceremony for an addition to their new Chatham site that will equal their Rogers Park facility.
At a press conference held on Wednesday, October 25, at Trilogy, 8541 S. State St., where she was joined by Alderman Will Hall (6th) and staffers, Doig said her mental health program has a goal of removing the stigma of mental illness needed to make people whole again. Her goal is to provide the Chatham site with the same mental health services given at their Rogers Park facility.
With 50-years’ experience in this venue, Doig said Trilogy has a record of helping people recover from mental illness and guiding them into a more stable and productive life. Their goal is to treat patients in a holistic way in addressing all of their needs.
Armed with construction helmets and sledgehammers, she, Alderman Hall, and others began smashing holes into the wall where a major expansion of Trilogy will be built.
It was a prelude to the event, dubbed “Breaking Down the Walls for Mental Health,” which is being held on Thursday, November 2, at the Venue West, 221 N. Paulina St., with a 5:30 p.m. VIP reception. At 6:30 p.m., the “Breaking Down the Walls” event will officially kick off the fundraiser for the expansion project.
Having purchased the 24,000-square-foot building and additional investments totaling $3.3 million, Doig is turning to the community to help raise the final $1.7 million needed to expand and renovate the new Chatham space.
She said the expansion is needed for employees and services like therapy onsite, integrated medical services onsite, a pharmacy, as well as children and adolescent services onsite. “We already have peer-in drop-in services,” she said. The addition is needed for laundry facilities and computer space “to provide the breadth of services” for those in need.
In an interview with the Chicago Crusader, Alderman Hall said, “This is the start of the beginning of the buildout for mental health services here in the 6th Ward.” He said no matter the age, people can come to this drop-in center and receive mental health services.
Aldelerman Hall said the new site for Trilogy was once Mercy Hospital’s South extension. “It is where I used to get my check-ups here as a kid.”
During the press conference, Kimberly Casey, a Trilogy board member, said, “We currently have limited resources to get this building up and ready for the community to be here, as well as our team at Trilogy.
Casey referred to a Chicago Urban League study she said contains startling statistics, “that continue to pop up year after year to show us that the increase of violence and trauma on the South Side leaves our communities in a place where they need access to mental health services.”
The study also said those who are experiencing homelessness and other types of trauma, like incarceration, “also lead to needing additional mental health services.” However, while she said the need is there, “we haven’t done anything about it.”
Trilogy has a drop-in program called Ujima Point named by Trilogy patients. Ujima is the third principle of Kwanzaa and refers to a collective responsibility and togetherness. Casey said there is a need for additional services to care for more individuals and additional mental health services. “We must step up to the plate” and support Trilogy,” she said.
If that happens, Casey said it will lead to a “shift in mental health services on the South Side and other organizations coming to the South Side to provide the services we have been asking for a long time.”
In an interview with the Chicago Crusader, Doig said Trilogy purchased the building in Chatham in 2022 for $2.3 million. “We really wanted to make an investment in the Chatham community. The breadth of our services in Rogers Park is broader than the services we have been offering on the South Side.
“The purchase of this building was really an investment in ensuring that we offer the wide array of services in the Chatham community that we are offering on the North Side,” Doig said. Those services include integrated behavioral health care, therapy, intensive outreach services, employment services and other vital services.
When asked which population Trilogy is targeting, Doig said, “We serve people with mental health needs and anyone who has serious mental illness like schizophrenia, to someone who has been impacted by divorce, loss of a job, a trauma in their life and they need mental health services to help them get through that so they can move on to a healthier and happier life.”
With such a broad range of symptoms, Doig said, “We want to meet people where they are.” Asked if a mental health assessment was made prior to the purchase of the Chatham site, Doig said, “Community needs assessments really underline that Chicago’s South Side has been experiencing higher rates for mental health care and lower access. The South Side has been a mental health desert in some areas. There just isn’t coverage.”
She said even before the pandemic, health disparity studies show that African Americans suffer at higher rates for things like depression and trauma and, combined with having less access to care, it doesn’t serve the community well. That is why we invested in this building because it’s such important work, and it’s crucial to helping communities here.”
Asked which health insurance plans Trilogy accepts, Doig said Medicaid plans, with the goal of serving those who can’t afford to pay for mental health care. Asked how she is funded, Doig said they are funded mostly by Medicaid with some funding from the state and by the city’s Department of Health.
When asked her goal for 2023, Doig said she hopes to have the expansion completed by the summer of 2024. Asked how many employees she has, Doig said there are 465 employees, and that the expansion will add 50 jobs to the Chatham community.
Trilogy is a 501© (3) nonprofit organization servicing the entire city of Chicago, including locations in Rogers Park, Albany Park, Logan Square, South Shore, and a housing location in Englewood. Trilogy’s First-response Alternative Crisis Team (FACT) provides urgent mobile response and intervention for individuals experiencing mental health crises that are not immediately life-threatening in the Rogers Park, Edgewater, West Ridge and Uptown neighborhoods, and in Skokie and Evanston.
