Frank Acton is a man with a mission. He is also a man who has the platform to live out that mission.
As coordinator of SEM-LAN (the Schaumburg-Elk Grove Village and Maine Township Local Area Network), Acton is responsible for linking west suburban residents who are mentally ill and in state hospitals with the services they need. This can provide assessment prior to hospitalization, face-to-face meetings while the patient is hospitalized and a personalized treatment plan after the patient is released.
“We provide a sort of one-stop shopping,” said Acton, a Bloomingdale resident. “Coordination between professionals who can successfully bring people from the hospital back to their communities is a real factor in making shattered lives whole.”
Local Area Networks were developed five years ago by the State of Illinois when it consolidated autonomous mental health agencies into a more cooperative effort.
Wayne Jozwiak of Mt. Prospect, clinical director of the Kenneth Young Centers in Elk Grove Village, described the motivation behind the formation of the LANs.
“They were designed to build larger systems of care, to include consumer participation by the recipient of behavioral services,” he said. “After extensive research, Illinois saw the benefit of cooperative mutual referrals for services.”
Before LANs, state hospitals and agencies did not have any liaison. “After a state hospitalization, patients were left to drift after discharge,” Acton said. “Community involvement was non-existent.”
According to Jozwiak, there are 12 LAN agents in the region that extends from the Northwest Side of Chicago to the western suburbs.
Jozwiak said the typical client is someone who does not have insurance, is classified as “the working poor” or is indigent. The LAN can provide an initial assessment, a pre-screening for state hospitalization or a determination that immediate hospitalization is needed.
“We make the connection while the person is in the hospital,” Jozwiak added. “They see that this is the one who will help me when I am discharged, since a relationship is established.”
Jozwiak administers the $135,000 annual budget for the SEM-LAN. Part of the money covers the salaries of coordinator Acton, who primarily works with clients hospitalized at Reed Mental Health Center in Chicago, and Lynn Lovely, clinical case manager at Kenneth Young who works with clients who need short-term hospitalization, usually at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village. Both Acton and Lovely work at Kenneth Young, which offers a range of mental health, prevention and social services to clients.
Other funds are used to pay for hospitalization at Reed Center, Alexian Brothers or other local providers such as Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge or Woodland Hospital in Hoffman Estates. Money also is used for medication, transportation and respite care for clients in the three townships served by the SEM-LAN.
Once the patient is discharged, Acton is the first person he or she will see at the Kenneth Young Center, usually within 24 hours. “Eighty-two percent of those whom I see face to face at Reed Center show up for this first linkage appointment after discharge,” Acton said. “Only 34 percent show up if they have not been seen” by a LAN representative, he said.
The next course of treatment could include medication, counseling, a day program or a residential program. The residential program is a half-step out of the hospital, with 24-hour supervision, structured programming and a lot of monitoring. The objective here is to ease the transition of the person back into the community, Jozwiak said.
Lovely’s areas of concentration include short-term hospitalization and the specialized services needed for the mentally ill substance abuser.
“I monitor the number of emergency psychiatric hospitalizations for northwest suburban cases,” Lovely said. “I decide on an appropriate length of stay and expedite transfers if necessary. The key element is that this is done locally.”
The LAN uses Alexian Brothers Hospital for most of its short-term — six- to seven-day — hospitalizations. After discharge, patients have an initial appointment with Lovely. “I give them recommendations, either scheduling an appointment with one of our psychiatrists or explaining other services in the community that are available,” she said.
Ralph Yaniz of Glenview, the program director for Clinical Service Case Management and Crisis Intervention Services at the Maine Center for Mental Health in Park Ridge, described the benefits of being a part of the SEM-LAN.
“The biggest difference the LAN makes is that it gives us more control over the hospitalization of a client,” Yaniz said. “Prior to the LAN, we had to call an individual agency or hospital to do this. Now we can utilize hospital days in the most cost-effective manner possible.”
He said that by purchasing bed days in a private hospital from the Department of Mental Health, they are able to obtain the best pricing available and can use the money saved for in-patient services.
Yaniz also indicated that the clients and their families can come together quarterly for meetings with the LAN staff.
“Carla,” a 48-year-old west suburban resident, participates in the quarterly SEM-LAN meetings as a patient advocate. “I give input as to what would be helpful to a person in my position, namely more and varied housing and more support,” she said.
Carla first became involved with the Maine Center eight years ago. “I had no place to live. My cousin helped me find the Maine Center from a listing in the library,” Carla said.
Now she’s in a residential program, living in an apartment and has “had the same roommate for seven years,” she added. She has individual counseling once a week and attends a day program in Des Plaines weekdays.
Carla takes a variety of medications. “But I haven’t been in an in-patient hospital for 17 years,” she said proudly. “I have learned how to manage my symptoms.”
“Ellen,” a Hoffman Estates resident, got help from Acton and LAN about 15 months ago after 12 years of struggles with chemical dependency and depression. After she was released from a state hospital, Ellen got help from Acton finding a therapist, and she spent 10 weeks in a substance abuse group with Lovely.
“Both Lynn and Frank are exceptional in what they do,” she said. “Frank steers people toward sources of help. He knows what he is talking about.”
For those who must spend time in a state hospital, Acton and his counterparts are enabling these clients to obtain the most efficient and coordinated services available, to return to the community more quickly and to avoid repeat hospitalizations.
“The repeat hospitalization rate for people visited in state hospitals and state programs using private hospitals is about one-fourth of those for whom no linkage services were initiated,” Acton said.
Acton also sees part of his mission as being an advocate for the mentally ill. He would like to see the state increase the discretionary powers of the LAN agents in terms of treatment options.
“Let’s give these people a life,” he said.
