Current Issues

Many persons suffering from mental illness end up in jail or emergency departments because there is no other place for them to go. It cost five times more to house someone in jail than provide appropriate treatment.

Strategy

1. Increase Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for police,
2. Establish mental health crisis centers to divert from jail or emergency rooms,
3. More affordable housing.

Progress on this Strategy

CIT Training

​Lake Behavioral Hospital is open with 46 in patient beds and was approved at state and local level to add 100 more beds. The hospital committed to accept patients regardless of their .

Support for Lake Behavioral Hospital

LCU Leaders at Health Facilities and Services Review Board in Bolingbrook  support approval of Lake Behavioral Hospital in Waukegan.

LCU speaker describes her experience

Christa Haberkorn speaks to Waukegan Village Zoning Committee about traveling outside of Lake County to access mental health in patient treatment for her daughter and losing her job due to long distant daily travel to support her daughter.

Lake Behavioral Hospital

Lake Behavioral Hospital is open with 46 in patient beds and was approved  at state and local level to add 100 more beds. The hospital committed to accept patients regardless of their .

Attorney General Action

In March, 1257 leaders from 85 member institutions from Lake County United and affiliate organizations, United Power for Action and Justice (Cook), DuPage United, Fox River Valley Initiative (Kane), met with all 10 Republican and Democratic candidates and won a commitment from each candidate to meet with the four organizations within 30 days of the November election, if elected. Each candidate responded to how they would address key issue strategies of the organizations - reducing incarceration of people with mental illness and/or addiction, affordable housing, responding to hate crimes in 24 hours, and disrupting the flow of illegal guns and making guns safer. This short video (2 minutes, 33 seconds) will give you a sense of our commitment to having a dialogue with elected officials. The full length video (70 minutes) of the meeting is also available.

Reducing Gun Violence

Strategy Progress

Press gun manufacturers to be responsible corporate citizens by making guns safer and helping reduce illegal sale of guns.

1. Shareholders from the only two publicly traded gun manufacturers VOTED YES to require a report on how the company is working to reduce gun violence.
2. Police chiefs, sheriffs, and top officials representing 124 municipalities, counties, and states across the U.S. jointly submit-ted a request for information to major gun manufacturers seeking answers on their safety practices and technologies.

Lake County United is a vehicle for our member institutions (congregations, non-profits, associations) to take action on issues that impact their membership. Issues vary and change as the interests of our members change, but the issues and strategies react our shared values of our membership and get to the root of the cause.