Orland Park officials are promoting a hub for social services and mental healthcare now available for residents as part of a partnership initiated in October.
Care Solace looks to connect people with providers of housing and food as well as substance use and mental health resources, based on their specific needs, according to the organization. People can either find an array of mental health providers at caresolace.com/site/il-orlandpark or work with a staff member over the phone for more individualized support.
The Orland Park Village Board first discussed the initiative in October and agreed to the village paying about $1 per resident per year for three years, or about $58,000 per year, for full access to Care Solace’s resources.
About 150 Orland Park residents have used their platform since it launched quietly earlier this year, said Anita Ward, chief growth officer for Care Solace.
Ward said Orland Park is home to a large concentration of healthcare providers compared to surrounding communities, but access to mental health care in particular is often inequitably distributed and difficult to navigate.
“Lots of people, especially if they have public insurance or they don’t have any insurance, they struggle to get mental healthcare and support,” Ward said. “It creates an untenable situation for our most vulnerable communities. And while you might think about Orland Pak as a wealthier community, they’ve got populations that are still struggling with access to care.”
Ward said many area providers have seen increased wait times for services over the past several years, and the Northwestern Medicine behavioral health crisis line, 708-361-8255, saw a 15% year-over-year increase in call volume through the beginning of this year.
Residents can access Care Solace’s resources in more than 200 languages, and the staff who monitor the organization’s phone calls are able to match people with culturally and treatment specific healthcare and social services providers. Ward said the organization hopes to eventually work with more communities in the southwest suburbs to ensure as many people as possible are able to access the care they need.
Orland Park Assistant Village Manager Jim Culotta said the village will decide whether to continue funding the program for residents after three years, assessing how many residents use the service and how its received by the broader community.
The cost is being offset by opioid settlement funds, the village having received $64,000 as of October. Culotta said the village is sharing the resources with local school districts, the library and fire districts, and Orland Township in hopes that more people learn about Care Solace through them.
“And of course, we’re working with our Police Department, who may have interactions with the public, who perhaps might be looking for some of the services that are available,” Culotta said.
Culotta said the village’s funding of Care Solace’s resources is in line with Mayor Jim Dodge administration’s goal to meet the needs of the community. About 270 providers who the platform’s users can reach out to are located within Orland Park, and more than 15,000 are in broader Cook County.
“We want to make sure that we’re building strong families,” Culotta said. “And I think that Care Solace provides tools that may not be readily available to residents, and it provides these tools to find the care, the services that they need in a very user-friendly manner.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
