Evanston RoundTable
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After the City Council meeting on March 28, 2022, Mayor Daniel Biss praised the Council’s decision to fund the creation of the Evanston Living Room, a mental health crisis center, saying, “Our community, like many others, is experiencing a mental health crisis.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were left in a frail emotional state with no supportive resources other than calling 911 or heading to an emergency room. Evanston and Ascension Saint Francis hospitals and the police department eventually became overwhelmed with mental-health-related crises. People would quickly move through hospital ERs without receiving the necessary emotional support.
In response, community and hospital partners worked with Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center to create the Evanston Living Room.
The Evanston Living Room is an extension of Turning Point’s successful Living Room program in Skokie, which seeks to create safe places for people struggling with mental health crises. The Turning Point website states that the “Living Room offers walk-in mental health crisis support given by compassionate and well-trained staff in a comfortable environment” with no monetary or insurance requirement. The Living Room welcomes anyone struggling with a mental health crisis as one would welcome a guest into their own home.
In addition to the well-trained staff who work at the Living Room, there are also many peer staff members who have experienced some sort of mental health crisis and are in recovery.
Joe Flint, chief growth officer for Turning Point, said staff members can “respond from a peer-to-peer basis” to help create a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere that makes recovery easier.
The Evanston Living Room project took two and a half years to develop, largely because of difficulty finding a location. What ended up making a big difference was the $900,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding the project received in 2022.
The project finally found a location thanks to a collaboration with Ascension Saint Francis. A bungalow next to the hospital was remodeled into a suitable environment for crisis recovery. From this location, the Living Room works in collaboration with hospital staff to ensure that patients at the hospital have access to mental health care professionals and any resources they may need for recovery.
The Evanston Living Room is now open and welcomes walk-ins and referrals, who can come from hospitals, community organizations and concerned family members.
Anyone who does not feel comfortable or safe returning to their personal situation when the Evanston Living Room closes for the day can go to the 24-hour Skokie location.
The Evanston Police Department is not directly involved with the Living Room program, said EPD Cmdr. Ryan Glew, adding: “Referrals are likely being made through Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare and the CARE team.”
Since opening on Oct. 1, the Living Room has gotten off to a slow start, seeing three to four people a week, according to Flint.
“We’re doing a lot of outreach right now to try to educate people about this new resource,” he said. “Even though our staff there is new, we’re gearing up to be able to serve as many people as need us in the future.”
Part of that outreach is the Mobile Living Room, an RV that picks people up wherever they are and supports them in their immediate situation.
Over time, the Living Room hopes to become a well-known resource to help anyone struggling with a mental health crisis.
Since opening in 2011, the Living Room program in Skokie reportedly has been 98% successful deflecting people from the emergency room and into the program. By treating people in the Living Room instead of in the emergency room, the Evanston Living Room hopes to give more individual support to those in need while also preserving limited medical resources at hospitals that might not effectively support people who struggle with mental health crises. The environment of the Evanston Living Room makes it easy for guests to respond to support given by Living Room staff and create plans to ensure that any crisis is resolved.
The goal of the Living Room staff is to provide a safe space and support individuals in whatever crisis they face. “Our patients know us as a safe place to come to, and that’s exactly who we want to be,” Flint said.
The Evanston Living Room is open from noon to 8 p.m. every day.
Owen Michelson is a junior at Beacon Academy, a private high school in downtown Evanston. He wrote this report during a one-week internship at the RoundTable.
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Owen Michelson is a Junior and IB diploma candidate at Beacon Academy. He enjoys playing volleyball and soccer but often spends his free time going to the gym or playing games with his friends. More by Owen Michelson
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The Evanston RoundTable is the community’s leading source of news about local government, schools, civic and artistic activities, and other important issues facing our city. We seek to foster civic engagement and empower people to address complex issues facing our diverse community, promoting a better understanding and appreciation of people of all races, ethnicities, and income levels.
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