Men­tal Health Services

Men­tal health con­cerns span a range of inten­si­ty. Peo­ple may need guid­ance to get through a dif­fi­cult time in life (like a divorce, loss of a job, mon­ey prob­lems). Some ben­e­fit from an inter­ven­tion to cope with a sit­u­a­tion­al depres­sion or bout of anx­i­ety. Oth­ers have seri­ous men­tal ill­ness – brain dis­or­ders like schiz­o­phre­nia or bipo­lar dis­or­der that require ongo­ing sup­port and med­ica­tion to man­age the ill­ness. Whether for a short-term sup­port or long-term ther­a­py, KYC is here to sup­port clients regard­less of their abil­i­ty to pay for services.

To learn about our Good Faith Esti­mate pol­i­cy for ser­vices, click here.

KYC’s Recov­ery Video

Liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness can be hard, but at KYC our team of com­pas­sion­ate pro­fes­sion­als are ready to help. We’re proud to fea­ture the suc­cess sto­ries of our clients and the ded­i­cat­ed team who sup­port them.

Inter­ven­tion for Those with Men­tal Health Concerns

When you, your child, or some­one in your fam­i­ly is strug­gling with men­tal, emo­tion­al, work, school, or rela­tion­ship prob­lems, you can talk to a coun­selor at Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. You will be offered a screen­ing appoint­ment to best meet your indi­vid­u­al­ized needs. You may also get some answers over the phone, such as a refer­ral to a self-help group or oth­er com­mu­ni­ty resources. 

In your screen­ing appoint­ment, a KYC coun­selor will work to under­stand your rea­sons for need­ing help and assess your cur­rent sit­u­a­tion. You and your coun­selor will decide togeth­er whether to begin treat­ment at KYC. If so, you’ll be con­nect­ed to the pro­gram you need, which might offer indi­vid­ual, group, or fam­i­ly coun­sel­ing, or case management.

Coun­sel­ing offers an oppor­tu­ni­ty to process and deal with life sit­u­a­tions that may be chal­leng­ing. Ther­a­py also helps peo­ple strug­gling with anx­i­ety, depres­sion, emo­tion­al trau­ma, and oth­er men­tal health issues. Treat­ment may include some or all of the following:

• Meet­ing with a coun­selor to iden­ti­fy prob­lems and devel­op strate­gies for change. 
• Indi­vid­ual, cou­ple, or group ther­a­py with pro­fes­sion­al support. 
• Edu­ca­tion about your prob­lem, diag­no­sis, and ways to change for the better. 
• A com­bi­na­tion of coun­sel­ing and medication. 

With chil­dren, ther­a­pists may use play as well as dis­cus­sion to address prob­lems. Coun­selors can pro­vide direc­tion and sup­port for par­ents and help fam­i­lies under­stand the expe­ri­ences their chil­dren are having.

Treat­ment for Those with Seri­ous Men­tal Illness

Peo­ple diag­nosed with seri­ous and per­sis­tent men­tal ill­ness are coached and taught skills to move toward recov­ery. Clients may take part in groups that teach skills for self-care, social rela­tion­ships, self-expres­sion, and inde­pen­dent liv­ing. Recov­ery from men­tal ill­ness means liv­ing an inde­pen­dent, pro­duc­tive, and sat­is­fy­ing life. 

Ser­vices for adults with men­tal illness:

Employ­ment Services

Our voca­tion­al pro­gram helps peo­ple who have a men­tal ill­ness diag­no­sis gain and main­tain employ­ment. Some are return­ing to work, some may be try­ing to get their first job, and oth­ers may have a prob­lem­at­ic work his­to­ry for which they are seek­ing solu­tions. Once a per­son obtains an employ­ment posi­tion, empha­sis shifts to cop­ing with stress to min­i­mize symp­toms and main­tain mean­ing­ful employment. 

We work with KYC clients, as well as those referred to us through the Illi­nois Divi­sion of Reha­bil­i­ta­tive Ser­vices (DRS). Our ser­vices con­sist of assess­ment, career explo­ration, resume devel­op­ment, job-search plan­ning, inter­view coach­ing, job coach­ing and eval­u­a­tions, job reten­tion coun­sel­ing, and Job Club meet­ings in indi­vid­ual and/​or group settings.

Employ­ment Ser­vices Brochure for Job Seek­ers
Employ­ment Ser­vices Brochure for Businesses

Drop-In Cen­ter

KYC’s Drop-In Cen­ter pro­motes com­mu­ni­ty among peo­ple liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness. The Drop-In Cen­ter is designed to cre­ate a non-clin­i­cal envi­ron­ment to sharp­en social skills, make new friends, and fur­ther explore oppor­tu­ni­ties with­in the com­mu­ni­ty. Fund­ed by the Depart­ment of Human Ser­vices, any adult with a men­tal health diag­no­sis is wel­come 364 days a year. To learn more about the Drop-In Cen­ter or for a list of their cur­rent cal­en­dar of activ­i­ties, click here.

Drop-In Cen­ter Brochure

Behav­ioral Health Recov­er in the Com­mu­ni­ty — Per­ma­nent Sup­port­ive Housing

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter is proud to pro­vide sup­port ser­vices to four sup­port­ive hous­ing buildings:

1. Myers Place: With 39 units for adults in need of sup­port­ive liv­ing ser­vices, Myers Place opened in 2013. 
2. Phil­Haven: With 49 one, two, and three bed­room units, Phil­Haven opened in 2017.
3. Mari­son Mills: mul­ti-unit devel­op­ment in South Elgin
4. Water’s Edge: mul­ti-unit devel­op­ment in South Elgin

KYC also pro­vides in-home sup­port to adults with men­tal health dis­or­ders through­out the North­west suburbs. 

For hous­ing inquiries, includ­ing wait­list sta­tus, please con­tact the Hous­ing Author­i­ty of Cook Coun­ty direct­ly at the​hacc​.org.

Tran­si­tion­al Liv­ing Program

Our tran­si­tion­al liv­ing pro­gram pro­vides indi­vid­u­als with apart­ment liv­ing super­vised at dif­fer­ent lev­els. The pri­ma­ry goal is to sup­port clients as they devel­op inde­pen­dent liv­ing skills with­in the com­mu­ni­ty so they can tran­si­tion into inde­pen­dent living.

Inten­sive Recov­ery Group (IRG) Services

Inten­sive Recov­ery Group (IRG) ser­vices are com­prised of a com­bi­na­tion of group and indi­vid­ual treat­ments that pro­mote improved skills of dai­ly liv­ing and socio-emo­tion­al devel­op­ment in adults ages 18 and up. IRG ser­vices focus on sta­bil­i­ty by offer­ing mul­ti­ple groups per week to cre­ate day­time struc­ture. This pro­gram sup­ports adults with men­tal health chal­lenges that may be new­ly emerg­ing or who have chron­ic and endur­ing men­tal health diag­noses. These ser­vices are intend­ed to adapt to the chang­ing needs of a med­ical­ly diverse por­tion of our com­mu­ni­ty, includ­ing indi­vid­u­als who have expe­ri­enced high­er, more restric­tive lev­els of care as well as those who have strug­gled at low­er lev­els of care.

IRG cur­ricu­lum-based groups help indi­vid­u­als with:

• Liv­ing with cur­rent or long-term dif­fi­cul­ties with men­tal health
• Learn­ing or increas­ing social skills, anger man­age­ment, and rela­tion­ship skills
• Acquir­ing or strength­en­ing inde­pen­dent liv­ing skills
• Voca­tion­al Development
• Learn­ing and prac­tic­ing skills out in the community

The fol­low­ing areas are also addressed in IRG groups:

• Cop­ing and cog­ni­tive skills
• Com­mu­ni­ty inte­gra­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills
• Inde­pen­dent living
• Work and school readiness
• Med­ica­tion self-management
• Health care and nutrition
• Symp­tom management
• Interpersonal/​relationship/​family skills
• Anger and stress management
• Orga­ni­za­tion and time management
• Dialec­ti­cal Behav­ioral Ther­a­py (DBT)

To learn more about Inten­sive Recov­ery Group ser­vices, please call KYC at 847−524−8800

Ser­vices for Chil­dren and Adolescents

Chil­dren, ado­les­cents and teens come to KYC for a vari­ety of rea­sons and are in dif­fer­ent degrees of need. KYC has a broad range of ser­vices designed to meet the unique needs of each child, ado­les­cent and teen, as well as their families.

Child and Ado­les­cent Services

In many cas­es, youth come to KYC because their par­ents need help get­ting them through a dif­fi­cult time which may be relat­ed to divorce, school-pho­bias, anx­i­ety, peer rejec­tion, behav­ior prob­lems, seri­ous trau­ma or a vari­ety of oth­er fac­tors. Our Child & Ado­les­cent Ser­vices team also work with youth who are in psy­chi­atric cri­sis due to seri­ous emo­tion­al dis­tur­bance. What­ev­er the rea­son, youth who come to Ken­neth Young Cen­ter will receive unbi­ased, pro­fes­sion­al help. We strive to reduce inter­nal and exter­nal con­flict, as well as help youth cope with dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions and transitions.

Ther­a­pists may use play as well as dis­cus­sion to address prob­lems with chil­dren. Coun­selors can pro­vide direc­tion and sup­port for par­ents and help fam­i­lies under­stand the expe­ri­ences their chil­dren are going through.

Below are few of our groups cur­rent­ly being offered to chil­dren and teens. All par­tic­i­pants are screened to deter­mine if the pro­gram is a good fit pri­or to participation.

• Social Skills: Shin­ing Stars
  Chil­dren ages 6 – 9 years old will learn skills to help with impulse con­trol, mak­ing friends, build­ing empa­thy, fol­low­ing direc­tions, lis­ten­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and mindfulness.
• Impulse Con­trol: Jump­ing Beans
  Chil­dren ages 7 – 10 years old will learn skills to help with impulse con­trol, self-con­trol, bound­aries, cop­ing, and more.
• Girl’s Cir­cle
  Chil­dren ages 13 – 18 who iden­ti­fy as female or femme will build self-esteem, work on estab­lish­ing healthy rela­tion­ships, and gain inter­per­son­al and empa­thet­ic skills.
• Dialec­ti­cal Behav­ioral Ther­a­py (DBT) Ado­les­cent Group
  High school chil­dren will learn to live in the moment, cope health­ily with stress, reg­u­late emo­tions, and improve rela­tion­ships with oth­ers. This is a skill-based cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py group.
• Anx­i­ety and Depres­sion Group
  Mid­dle school chil­dren will engage in activ­i­ties to learn about depres­sion and anx­i­ety and how to mon­i­tor moods through effec­tive cop­ing strategies.

For more infor­ma­tion or ques­tions about these groups, please con­tact our Intake team at 847−524−8800 ext. 136.

Behav­ioral Sup­port Ser­vices (Men­tor­ing)

Behav­ioral Sup­port Ser­vices, also known as Men­tor­ing, are avail­able for youth through age 24 to help prac­tice cop­ing skills, social­iza­tion, and emo­tion­al man­age­ment strate­gies. Behav­ioral Sup­port Ser­vices are a clin­i­cal sup­port offered to qual­i­fy­ing clients who also receive indi­vid­ual ther­a­py at Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. Behav­ioral Sup­port Spe­cial­ists work one-on-one with clients to use activ­i­ties and social expe­ri­ences as oppor­tu­ni­ties to build con­fi­dence and prac­tice skills learned in ther­a­py in real-world set­tings. To learn more about this pro­gram, how to qual­i­fy, and how it sup­ports a client’s per­son­al­ized treat­ment plan, please call 847−524−8800 ext. 136. 

SASS Pro­gram

Chil­dren and ado­les­cents with severe emo­tion­al or behav­ioral dis­or­ders may be a dan­ger to them­selves or oth­ers. In this sit­u­a­tion, they may require more inten­sive sup­port and ther­a­py in an out­pa­tient or inpa­tient setting. 

KYC pro­vides com­mu­ni­ty-based Screen­ings, Assess­ments, and Sup­port­ive Ser­vices (SASS) to deter­mine the sever­i­ty of the psy­chi­atric cri­sis and rec­om­mend appro­pri­ate treat­ment. For most, this means pro­vid­ing an array of sup­port and wrap-around ser­vices that enable them to remain in their home and community. 

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter pro­vides SASS ser­vices in Hanover, Schaum­burg, Elk Grove, and Maine Townships. 

If you are con­cerned that a child or ado­les­cent is expe­ri­enc­ing a psy­chi­atric cri­sis and may be an immi­nent risk of harm to them­selves or oth­ers, call the CARES line imme­di­ate­ly at (800) 345‑9049.