About Us

When it comes to mental health, the City of Chicago is committed to hearing you and helping you get the support you need. We have over 100 publicly-funded clinics that provide mental health services across the city, plus dozens of nonprofit community mental health centers. The Framework for Mental Health Equity is creating a citywide network of care, funding community providers and filling gaps so that all Chicagoans can access the mental health services they need – no matter when and where they need them.

01The Investment
02Strategy
03Benefits
04Community Support
01

The Investment

Mayor Lightfoot has tripled the City’s mental health budget since 2019.

02

Strategy

Go big with a coordinated, citywide network of care to address trauma.

  • Investment in Trauma-Informed Centers of Care, which expand mental health services in communities of highest need.
  • Investment in the Chicago Department of Public Health’s five mental health clinics, which offer mental health services to Chicagoans regardless of income, insurance status, or ability to pay. These investments include physical infrastructure improvements, telehealth implementation, initiation of child and adolescent services, and expansion of psychiatric services.
  • Strengthening crisis prevention and response in communities that experience a high volume of 911 calls with a behavioral health component. This includes the integration of behavioral health professionals into the 911 call center, launching an alternate response pilot program, and investing in alternatives to the emergency department for behavioral health crisis stabilization.
  • Investment in assertive community treatment (ACT) and community support team (CST) programs for people with complex behavioral health needs, to reduce cyclical utilization of crisis services.
  • Mental health system coordination, including public communication, policy advocacy, and bolstering mental health services in schools.
03

Benefits

More access, more equity.

  • Serves tens of thousands of residents every year
  • Funds trusted community organizations rooted in neighborhoods
  • Links mental health with physical health and social services to care for the whole person
  • Invests in CDPH’s current clinics
  • Uses data to guide where investments are most needed
  • Funds services for youth and adolescents
04

Community Support

  • Community
  • Health Network
  • Alivio Medical Center
  • Annixter Center
  • Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
  • Asian Health Services Family Health Center
  • BBC Family Services (Better Boys Foundation)
  • Bobby Wright Comprehensive behavioral Health Center
  • Bright Star Community Outreach (Pastor Chris Harris)
  • Board of Health President
  • Carolyn Lopez
  • Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4)
  • Center on Halsted
  • Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition
  • Erie Family Health Centers
  • Esperanza Health Centers
  • Habilitation Systems Inc
  • Hamdard Health Center
  • Heartland Alliance Health
  • Heartland Health Centers
  • Healthcare Alternative Systems (HAS)
  • Howard Brown Health
  • Human Resources Development Institute (HRDI)
  • I AM ABLE
  • The Kennedy Forum
  • Lawndale Christian Health Center
  • Lutheran Social Services of Illinois
  • Metropolitan Family Services
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness Chicago
  • Rincon Family Services
  • TASC Inc
  • Thresholds
  • Trilogy Behavioral Health