Arlen Gould
Northwest suburban mental health advocates are speaking out against the planned cuts to inpatient psychiatric services and layoffs of more than 100 workers at Arlington Heights-based Northwest Community Healthcare.
Arlen Gould, a board member of the North-Northwest Suburban Task Force on Supportive Housing for Individuals with Mental Illness, called the proposed cuts by corporate owner Endeavor Health “troubling” at a time when the demand for mental health treatment continues.
“Our concern is that when that inpatient facility closes, patients will need to be transported to other hospitals — be it Evanston or Naperville if they’re within the Endeavor program, or other locations,” Gould said during an Arlington Heights village board meeting Monday night. “That’s time delayed, that’s extra work by the hospital taking them there … and we just don’t think that Arlington Heights deserves that treatment.”
Gould, an Arlington Heights resident and member of the Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 school board, asked the elected village officials to get involved and “find out really why Arlington Heights is being punished and not Naperville (and) why Arlington Heights is being punished and not Evanston.”
Endeavor announced last Thursday that inpatient services at the 52-bed NCH Behavioral Health Center, 901 W. Kirchoff Road, will be discontinued April 11. Some 100 nurses and others with specialized skills who work there, as well as a “small number” of others who work at the main hospital next door, are expected to get pink slips, officials confirmed.
In an interview with the Daily Herald Tuesday afternoon, Gina Sharp, Endeavor’s system executive of the behavioral health service line, attributed the decision to declines in inpatient psychiatric admissions coupled with the need to cut costs across the hospital system.
Inpatient psychiatric services at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights are being discontinued effective April 11, officials announced.
Courtesy of Northwest Community Healthcare
Sharp reiterated Endeavor would enhance services in its outpatient behavioral health department, including through day programming, medication management and counseling, while providing funding through a partnership with Elk Grove Village-based mental health service provider Kenneth Young Center.
“There’s no deniability that there’s a need for mental health services … but what we’re seeing is a shift in care that is needed,” said Sharp, who is also president of Linden Oaks Hospital, a dedicated psychiatric hospital in Naperville.
“We feel that we’re very well equipped to be able to still help individuals who might need inpatient services through the resources within the Endeavor Health system,” she added. “And I think that’s one of the advantages of coming together as a health system, is that we put together different programs across our different hospitals to be able to assess the needs of individuals and help find appropriate placement, whether that’s internally or with partners in the community.”
Following the closure at NCH, Endeavor will have 178 inpatient psychiatric beds across Linden Oaks in Naperville and three other hospitals with inpatient psychiatric units: Highland Park Hospital, Evanston Hospital and Swedish Hospital in Chicago.
Sharp said there is currently capacity at all facilities.
Endeavor is the third-largest health system in Illinois, following mergers in recent years of NCH, NorthShore University Health System and Edward-Elmhurst Health.
Following Gould’s comments Monday, Arlington Heights Trustee Jim Bertucci said it is important to get the word out to the community that individuals in a crisis will still be able to go to NCH’s emergency department for help and services.
Sharp said the ER will still be staffed with crisis managers, and starting later this month, peer specialists from Haymarket Center will be there to help provide assessments of patients. If inpatient care is needed, the staff would look to place individuals at one of the Endeavor hospitals or with an organization in the area, she said.
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