THRESHOLDS CELEBRATES NEW, EXPANDED MCHENRY COUNTY LOCATION

THRESHOLDS CELEBRATES NEW, EXPANDED MCHENRY COUNTY LOCATION 

Ribbon-cutting and community open house showcase expanded services and offer an early look at the upcoming Living Room crisis respite program


MCHENRY, IL — Thresholds, a nonprofit provider of mental health and substance use services, today celebrated its new, larger home in McHenry County with a ribbon-cutting and community open house, held inside the building’s new Living Room space. The expanded location—located at 616 Route 31 in McHenry—allows Thresholds to grow the services it offers locally, including the addition of the Living Room, a 24/7, peer-led crisis respite program offering free, alternative care to psychiatric hospitalization for people experiencing a mental health crisis. The Living Room will open its doors in October. B-roll of today's event is available here.


“Too many people in crisis end up in an emergency room, or worse, a jail cell, simply because there's nowhere else to go,” said Mark Ishaug, CEO of Thresholds. “This new home, and the Living Room we'll open here in October, are about making sure that in McHenry County, there is somewhere else to go—a place that welcomes you no matter your insurance status, and treats you with the dignity and respect every person deserves.”


The new Living Room and expanded space adds to a growing continuum of care Thresholds has built in McHenry County over more than three decades. The Thresholds Center for Mental Wellbeing—McHenry is the organization’s flagship location in the county, and offers individual, group, and family therapy; psychiatry and medication management; care coordination; employment and education support; housing assistance; primary care integration; and substance use services, as well as:


•             Outreach Teams: One Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team, three Community Support Teams (CST), and one Community Support Individual (CSI) team — deliver wraparound mental health services directly in clients' homes and neighborhoods, together serving 240 individuals.

•             McHenry County Jail Partnership: The jail-based treatment partnership has served 70 clients in the past year, bringing mental health care to people awaiting trial with serious mental illness.

•             Housing Support: Thresholds houses 12 people in the Rebecca Susan Apartments in Woodstock and administers 14 additional scattered-site permanent supportive housing vouchers across the county for people experiencing homelessness.

•             The Living Room: Opening in October, this will be one of McHenry County's first 24/7 walk-in alternatives to psychiatric hospitalization. Modeled on Thresholds' existing Living Room program on Chicago’s North Side, it will be staffed in large part by Certified Recovery Support Specialists—people with their own lived experience of mental illness and recovery—offering free crisis intervention, safety planning, and referrals to housing, healthcare, and other community resources in a calm space to decompress.


“For our clients today, this new space means shorter waits, more room for therapy and family sessions, and more services under one roof,” said Anneliese Thurston, Area Director of Clinical Operations, Thresholds McHenry County. “And this October, when we open the doors of the Living Room, we'll be able to offer McHenry County a place someone can walk into during a crisis, any hour of the day, and be met by a peer who has been there themselves.”


In total, Thresholds currently serves more than 600 individuals in McHenry County each year. Thresholds first established a presence in McHenry County in 1992 with a group home and clubhouse-model services in downtown Woodstock. What began serving a small number of residents grew to 65 clients by 2012, and expanded steadily over the next decade.


About Thresholds

Founded in 1959, Thresholds provides healthcare, housing, and hope for thousands of persons with mental illnesses and substance use conditions in Illinois each year. Through care, employment, advocacy, and housing, Thresholds assists and inspires people with mental illnesses to reclaim their lives. Learn more about Thresholds at thresholds.org.

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