Priority Issue: Substance Use and Mental Health
How do we strengthen prevention and treatment of behavioral health issues for residents of DuPage County?
Impact DuPage is partnering with three different coalitions to address behavioral health in DuPage County: Behavioral Health Collaborative, HOPE Taskforce, and Prevention Leadership Team. The action plan is below.
These strategies represent only a portion of the work being done by the community to address issues related to mental health and substance use. Email us to let us know if you are also working on this issue, we would love to hear from you!
Behavioral Health Collaborative
Vision: All DuPage County residents are able to reach their full potential through a fully integrated behavioral health system that has sufficient capacity to provide high quality, client-driven services.
Mission: The Behavioral Health Collaborative works collaboratively to identify and implement data-driven strategies that improve access and quality of behavioral health services for all DuPage County residents, advocate for aligning resources and funding, and educate the community about the signs and symptoms of mental health issues.
For more information, contact BHC Co-Chair Lori Carnahan.
Heroin/Opioid Prevention & Education (HOPE) Taskforce
Description: The HOPE Taskforce is responsible for advising DuPage County elected leaders on needed program development, supporting infrastructure, and policy recommendations to address DuPage County’s opioid issues and may assist with other related issues as necessary. It is an interagency-interdisciplinary advisory task force that will professionally and comprehensively assess opioid use within DuPage County, recommend effective and actionable policies, initiatives, and programs; and measure success from desired program and initiative benchmarks and deliverables.
For more information, contact HOPE Taskforce member Mila Tsagalis.
Prevention Leadership Team
Vision: For DuPage County to be a mentally and physically healthy, drug-free community.
Mission: Bring together a collaboration of leaders that assess and advocate for the use of best practices to reduce risk behaviors of youth leading to substance use, abuse and addiction.
For more information, contact PLT Project Coordinator Jorie Esser.
Substance Use and Mental Health Action Plan
Related Key Indicators
Please expand the sections below to track progress on the current Impact DuPage Action plan- Substance Use and Mental Health activities.
Reduce opioid use and misuse
Jul
2025
2025
Spread messaging about the need for medication for opioid disorder treatment options in their community
MAR Action Team shared media messages during Summer 2023.Seek out healthcare providers to educate about Medication for Opioid Use Disorder and ask to secure the waiver requirements to treat patients.
Webinar set for 9/12/23 and registration is open.Raise awareness about medications for opioid use disorder
MOUD Infographic was created and shared. Media campaign launched and CME Event held on 9/12/23 about MOUD.Provide information in English and Spanish
Make at least one event/training available virtually in order to reduce time, travel and childcare barriers
Webinar is scheduled for 9/12/23 with registration open to the community (not just prescribers).
Partner with Glenbard Parent Series to host an event for parents on the risks of providing alcohol to youth.
Sep
2025
2025
Partner with Glenbard Parent Series to host an event for parents on the risks of providing alcohol to youth.
PLT partnered with GPS on at least one speaker who covered this topic. Josh Shipp addressed parents in Feb. with his talk "The Grownups Guide to the Human Teenager" where substance use risk and protective factors and how parents can talk with youth about prevention was discussed.Work with Reality youth coalition to create and present educational session for parents on risks of underage alcohol use.
Teen ambassadors will be working on this in Q2 during alcohol awareness month in April 2023.Conduct townhalls in person and web-based on the impacts of youth alcohol use and strategies parents can use for prevention.
Assist an additional 2 schools with developing social norming/communications campaigns.
Work with schools in District 87 to send parents an educational flyer talking about social hosting and underage drinking laws, before youth can purchase school dance tickets.
Make at least one event/training available virtually in order to reduce time, travel and childcare barriers
Provide information in English and Spanish
Assist 2 police departments and 2 schools with raising community awareness of social host laws by providing content for newsletters, social media posts and townhall meetings
Provide a parent workshop for parents to strengthen skills and effectiveness when discussing alcohol use prevention with youth
Continue to enhance website and social media accounts with educational resources on youth alcohol prevention
Target 4 alcohol outlets with sticker shock campaigns with youth sector to tag merchandise with underage drinking prevention messaging targeting adult consumers of alcohol
Promote Youth Connections magazine that includes youth alcohol prevention articles to parent groups and community partners
Conduct mass media campaigns targeting parents on the impacts of youth alcohol use (Those who Host Lose the Most, SAMHSA Talk They Hear You, etc.)
Communicate the risks of underage marijuana use to parents
Jul
2023
2023
Partner with District 87 to conduct communications campaign on effects of youth marijuana/vaping use.
This underage marijuana prevention campaign was completed in all four high schools in District 87.Partner with prevention agencies on a “point of sale” strategy to provide prevention materials to adult marijuana customers to educate them about dangers of youth use and keeping track of their supply.
Materials have been developed and are being reviewed. Once a final product is ready, PLT will work on a distribution plan.Work with Glenbard Parent Series to offer a session on the impacts of youth marijuana use in Spanish.
Conduct paid mass media campaigns targeting parents on the risks of youth marijuana use
Engage coalition speaker’s bureau to provide presentations on the effects of youth marijuana/vaping use to school staff and parents
In collaboration with DCHD, conduct mailing to all DuPage County School staff, offering free vaping/marijuana presentations for students throughout school year
DCHD Health Promotions (HP) staff has been in schools offering education on substance use impacts.Promote Youth Connections magazine with youth marijuana use prevention articles to parent groups and community partners
Work with Reality Youth Coalition to develop and present educational session to parents on risks of youth marijuana use
Partner with Rosecrance or Linden Oaks on a parent café model to educate parents on signs of marijuana use and skills to talk to youth about prevention
Host 1 CME events for healthcare professionals on the impacts of youth marijuana use and how to talk to young patients and parents about prevention
Work with Glenbard Parent Series (GPS) to offer a session on the impacts of youth marijuana use in Spanish
Provide information in English and Spanish
Make at least one event/training available virtually in order to reduce time, travel and childcare barriers
Strengthen the availability of youth mental health services
Jan
2025
2025
In collaboration with PLT, create Youth Mental Health subcommittee
Subcommittee has been formed and coordinating work with PLT.BHC member(s) join DuPage youth organizations and share information to encourage their participation in BHC
Members are joining groups.Assist PLT in encouraging widespread participation in Illinois Youth Survey in 2024, with specific outreach in areas with highest rates of youth mental health hospitalization
Host youth mental health event featuring treatment providers & youth with lived experience and recommendations for schools, teachers, and parents
Conduct focus group-level information gathering with groups of students to find what mental health supports they know about and what they wish could be provided
Focus groups have been completed and results will be shared at the June 2023 PLT meeting. A total of 4 teen focus groups were conducted.Review disparities in rates of youth hospitalization and usage of crisis services and specially address on communities with high need
Translate all physical materials into Spanish and other highly utilized languages within communities using them
New Crisis Flyer has been translated to Spanish but no other progress.
Improve the coordination of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder treatment throughout the County
Jan
2024
2024
BHC member(s) join DuPage substance use/recovery organizations and share information to encourage their participation in BHC
Members are joining groups.In collaboration with HOPE, create co-occurring disorder subcommittee
Prepare guide for substance use providers to administer C-SRS (or similar screening tool) and what to do with the results; include translations into Spanish and other languages
Due to widespread screening already, it was determined that a guide of this type would NOT be helpful at this time.Host webinar for providers on importance of screening for MH and SU during visits for substance use disorder and mental health treatment, including examples for how to do both
Partner with recovery groups to gather focus group-level information on how people manage co-occurring MH and SUD
Partnering with DuPage ROSC to discuss needs of those with lived experience and potential for focus group.Assess mental health/substance use treatment availability for different municipalities and groups with higher need for treatment based on disparity statistics
Raise community awareness of available options for mental health crisis response
Jan
2025
2025
Conduct information sessions with BHC partner organizations after 988 is live to share the purpose and use cases for 988
Build a network for area-specific mental health services, especially in regions with highest mental health hospitalization rates
Performing this informally through the Co-Occurring Subcommittee, but have not yet cross-referenced to ensure highest need communities are representedBHC member(s) join local or regional organizations and share information to encourage their participation in BHC
Identify behavioral health organizations that are not participating in BHC and meet with coalition leaders to encourage bidirectional participation
Use IRIS to identify underutilized organizations and gaps in offered services throughout the County
Subcommittee received presentation about IRIS and determined it to not be a good fit for this project at this time.Share information with new partners about need for central behavioral health receiving center via meetings, calls, and presentations
Starting a CRC workgroup in early 2024 and continually sharing info about CRC at BHC meetings.Analyze data from Health Department BHS to identify populations with high Mobile Crisis Response utilization and provide increased messaging to raise awareness to other populations
Increase overdose response
Jul
2025
2025
Expand overdose follow-up provided by hospitals, fire departments, police departments, and social workers.