Child/Adolescent Services
The Youth Services Program of the Will County Health Department is a community based, culturally competent mental health outreach
model that serves children and adolescents who have substantial behavioral or emotional impairment. The system of care delivery is child-centered
and family-focused and the types of services provided are dictated by the needs of the child and family. In addition, services are responsive
to the cultural, racial, and ethnic differences of the populations served. The primary goal of the program is to address the emotional, behavioral,
and developmental needs of youth in an attempt to obtain and maintain enhanced levels of functioning at home, in the schools, and in the
community. Most importantly, service provision allows for the identification, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and related disorders.
The Youth Services Program offers a comprehensive array of services that includes psychiatry, individual, family and group therapy, crisis intervention,
outreach, case management, parenting classes, respite services, substance abuse assessment and treatment, and referral and linkage services
to other needed resources and programs. The program concentrates its efforts on underserved individuals including public aid recipients
and low income families.
Juvenile Justice
Mental Health/Juvenile Justice is a Department of Human Services program that services incarcerated or legally involved youth who have a
major mental illness. The primary goal of the program is identify appropriate community services using a wrap-around model that includes
mental health, medication, substance abuse treatment, special education and other public health services. If community based services cannot
be obtained, the Mental Health/Juvenile Justice assists to provide funding to secure services from other sources.
Bridges
The mission of the Bridges program is to service high risk mentally ill and severely emotionally disturbed children and adolescents requiring
more intense services and higher levels of care. With an emphasis on cultural competence and stigma reduction, the program is partially funded
by the Department of Human Services and it focuses on the therapy and case management needs of clients who require more intense services
due to multiple constraints. Community outreach and out-of-office service delivery insures treatment in the least restrictive environment and
emphasizes integration of services across multiple domains. Parents and family members are encouraged to participate as full partners in the
service delivery plan. Service delivery is home-based, school-based, or community-based and each modality offers benefit for families, providers,
and agencies.
Therapeutic Behavioral Services
Respite Services provide a one-to-one therapeutic support to assist in improving functioning within the child's immediate community.
Treatment goals would involve improved interpersonal communication, improved peer and sibling relationships and working on behavior modification.
Examples of activities respite staff would do with children are going to the local park to work on appropriate play with peers, taking a
walk at a local forest preserve to alleviate depressive symptoms, going to a local restaurant to practice appropriate social interaction.
All Kids
FamilyCare offers health care coverage for families with children under the age of 18 years old. FamilyCare also covers families who are caring
for children in place of their parents. FamilyCare will cover parents and caretakers with incomes up to 133% of the Federal Poverty
Guidelines.