Mental health advocates in Vernon Township are optimistic that the passage of a referendum to create a mental health board will help ensure that area residents get support with their mental health, substance abuse or developmental disabilities.
Vernon Township is starting the process of forming its own community mental health board, also known as a 708 board, after the ballot measure drew support from 57.8% of more than 22,600 ballots, according to unofficial results.
The referendum’s passage creates an annual tax that could not exceed 0.037% of a property’s assessed value, and Vernon Township officials said the average homeowner should see an annual increase of about $49 on their property taxes.
“I think it shows that there’s definitely concerned about mental health in our community,” Vernon Township Supervisor Jon Altenberg said. “And that for the minimum cost of $49 per household, people felt that it was worthwhile investing that funding into mental health care.”
The question was posed to the township after a change in state law supported by state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, and state Rep. Dan Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, lowered the monetary threshold for levying a tax to create a community mental health board.
The township’s levy is slated to raise from about $3.82 million to about $5.29 million.
Nancy Harju, a retired psychologist with more than 35 years of experience working in area schools, said she was “thrilled” to see the referendum pass.
“I saw lots of kids (in the area) who really weren’t able to access mental health services for a variety of reasons,” Harju said. “Parents didn’t have good insurance, things like that. And the other thing that I think a community mental health board could be really instrumental in is getting a lot of programs that are preventive, as opposed to trying to help people when they have a problem.
“There’s things like drug education, things like that, kids really need to know and parents really need to be aware, things that are out there for their kids,” she said.
Harju supported a nearly identical measure in nearby Wheeling Township, which also passed after more than a year of organizing around it, but she was shocked by the seemingly comfortable success of the Vernon Township measure after being added to the ballot on a much closer turnaround.
Supporters working to mobilize the “yes” vote, Harju recalled, would joke that they were a ragtag group of people united by a desire to positively impact their neighbors’ mental health by keeping resources in the community.
“To me, it was a miracle,” she said. “But hey, it happened, and I’m sure it’s going to help our community.”
Harju said she was excited about possibilities for preventive programs and that she hopes it can also improve on “wraparound services when people come out of programs.”
The board must be formed by the end of this year, according to Altenberg. Applications open Tuesday on vernontownship.com, he said, and the township will accept them until Dec. 5.
Cathy King of Vernon Hills was another staunch supporter of the referendum, volunteering her time to speak to voters outside polling places and before Election Day.
“Eventually, it’s just going to be such a relief for the people of Vernon Township,” King said. “Especially during the pandemic, when wait times for services were just, it could be six weeks out. It was just so painful.”
King said it appeared that people from different political affiliations seemed to support the cause.
“No matter who I talked to, whether they were Republican or Democrat, or something in between, a lot of people didn’t know what was on the ballot, and they would always stop and say, ‘Wait, tell me about this,'” King said. “It just didn’t matter what side of the aisle you were on, people just listened and cared.”
Harju believes a group of Stevenson students, “were responsible for this thing getting through.”
“They really worked hard,” she said. “And I am so grateful that we have kids in this community that are so engaged and helping others.”
Altenberg said that young people are increasingly recognizing the importance of mental health, particularly after being heavily impacted by the COVID pandemic.
“Young people have been through a lot over the last few years, so it’s good to see that they want to be proactive and they got involved civically to push this type of legislation,” he said.
King said she believes that a wide range of people with different needs and from different age groups will benefit from the board’s impact.
After referendums were successful in Vernon and nearby Wheeling Township, as well as in some other Chicago suburbs, King is hopeful other townships in Lake County will see the benefits of creating their own board to respond to mental health needs.
“We’re the first in Lake County to pass this,” King said, “and I hope we’re not the last.”