"meeting the needs of a community in crisis through expanded access to mental health treatment" is a project proposed by crosspoint human services, which serves vermilion county, illinois

Post-covid-19, a massive mental health crisis is a "second pandemic." crosspoint will proactively address the sharply increasing need for mental health services by increasing therapeutic and psychiatric staffing to become more accessible in the community. Right now, difficulty with recruiting and funding appropriately credentialed staff members is a significant bottleneck in meeting the mental health needs of the residents of vermilion county with SMI, SED, and COD, vermilion county is a community in east-central illinois that is almost exactly a half-and-half urban-rural population split. Once a vibrant industrial and manufacturing community, the county seat, danville, is now struggling with underemployment, poverty, food insecurity, crime, and under-education. With the trauma of poverty and crime, IT is not surprising that the mental health needs of the community are substantial, but very few people are able to seek treatment because there is a severely limited number of service providers available for those who cannot private-pay or who do not have insurance coverage that would make mental health services affordable. That is the mission and goal of crosspoint human services: to provide high-quality, effective mental health treatment to individuals with SMI, SED, and COD, regardless of ability to pay. The struggle to maintain a staff large enough to service the needs of the county without maintaining waiting lists is becoming more amplified as covid lockdown restrictions lift. The anxiety, isolation, and stress are causing patients who were previously managed well in an outpatient setting to recently visit the emergency department with mental health crises for the first time in many years; other residents are struggling with mental health challenges for the first time in their lives. Crosspoint is looking to expand staffing and services to provide services to all who reach out or are referred without needing to implement waiting lists or turn people away; crosspoint also wants to maintain and expand convenient, effect telehealth services by developing kiosks and upgrading equipment to do so. (telehealth appointments also alleviate the substantial staffing problem because too few properly credentialed professionals are available for said employment.) with this project, crosspoint proposes to provide: psychiatric services for children and adolescents; expanded psychiatric services for adult and seniors; expanded therapy for both on-site and mobile in community at schools, community college, community centers; offer expanded in-person and telehealth mental health treatment; offer expanded hours to include evening and saturday mornings for increased access; increase peer support and family support; increase support and training to staff, educators in the community; and finally, deploy more kiosk stations for telehealth services and efficiency in starting services. Altogether, 513 unduplicated individuals will be served in year one, and 508 individuals will be served in year two of this project.