Cre­at­ing Con­tin­u­ous Care — KYC’s Liv­ing Room

October 09, 2024

Dig­ni­fied Diversion

No one should have to face a men­tal health cri­sis alone. Ken­neth Young Center’s Liv­ing Room pro­gram pro­vides a safe and com­pas­sion­ate alter­na­tive to emer­gency room care to peo­ple fac­ing some of their steep­est challenges. 

“Liv­ing Room Pro­gram­ming is meant to be a part of the cri­sis care con­tin­u­um in Illi­nois. The func­tion of this con­tin­u­um is to take unnec­es­sary hos­pi­tal­iza­tions out of the equa­tion,” Liv­ing Room Man­ag­er, Jacob Sto­ry, explains. Expand­ing the cri­sis response cov­er­age in areas all through­out Illi­nois by cre­at­ing Liv­ing Room spaces is just one of the meth­ods in break­ing the cri­sis hos­pi­tal­iza­tion cycle. Liv­ing Rooms estab­lish reli­able and safe com­mu­ni­ty sup­port dur­ing crisis. 

Jacob high­lights that a cri­sis could involve sui­ci­dal ideation, but that is not always the case. A cri­sis could be big feel­ings of over­whelm that require addi­tion­al sup­port in reg­u­lat­ing. The Liv­ing Room is avail­able and open ²⁴⁄₇ to those 18 years old and above who are seek­ing sup­port. There is no cost to vis­it the Liv­ing Room, which is open to all com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, regard­less of health care cov­er­age sta­tus. Any­one seek­ing care can vis­it this brave space to talk with a high­ly-trained Recov­ery Sup­port Spe­cial­ist who has real world recov­ery and men­tal health lived expe­ri­ences. Jacob expands on The Recov­ery Sup­port Specialist’s role, describ­ing, “[peo­ple who] either come out of the recov­ery com­mu­ni­ty or are in their own stage of recov­ery. Lived expe­ri­ence is impor­tant for the peo­ple we hire.” The aim is to ensure that peo­ple in cri­sis speak to some­one who has been through sim­i­lar expe­ri­ences in their own lives.”

This real-world expe­ri­ence allows the staff in the Liv­ing Room the abil­i­ty to meet clients where they are at. Skilled in empa­thy-work and de-esca­la­tion, Recov­ery Sup­port Spe­cial­ists con­nect with guests of the Liv­ing Room, allow­ing them the space to feel both heard and under­stood. Using the mod­el of harm-reduc­tion, the Liv­ing Room is a vol­un­tary walk-in space where those in cri­sis focus on peer sup­port with trained pro­fes­sion­als. How­ev­er, there are high­er lev­els of safe­guards built into this pro­gram­ming as well, includ­ing: sui­cide risk assess­ments, safe­ty plan­ning, and access to a Qual­i­fied Men­tal Health Pro­fes­sion­al when addi­tion­al sup­port is need­ed. The team at the Liv­ing Room is also equipped to sup­port plan­ning for those who still require or are inter­est­ed in seek­ing hos­pi­tal­iza­tion after their imme­di­ate cri­sis has resolved. The Liv­ing Room is meant to be a space where indi­vid­u­als can talk with a pro­fes­sion­al to eval­u­ate all of their options and pro­vides them with the space to make deci­sions and plan for what to do next. 

Mak­ing an Impact

Jacob recounts the suc­cess sto­ry of one guest who vis­it­ed the Liv­ing Room. ​“When they first came in, they described their pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences [attempt­ing to access care through oth­er avenues] as, ​‘I’ve been to this place, and they got rid of me. I went to that place, and they told me they can’t do any­thing for me.’ It was a series of expe­ri­ences where they weren’t get­ting what they need­ed. One of the first things we did was say ​‘we will stick with you as we work through this togeth­er.’” This reas­sur­ance was exact­ly what the guest need­ed to hear in order to keep work­ing towards their goals. 

The Liv­ing Room team con­nect­ed this com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber with a full suite of wrap­around ser­vices like oth­er ther­a­pies, groups, and ser­vices offered by Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. Jacob con­tin­ues, ​“gen­er­al­ly for peo­ple in cri­sis, the feel­ings are intense. They come off sound­ing angry or dis­mis­sive or annoyed and it’s very easy for folks to write them off in return.” The will­ing­ness of this Liv­ing Room team to ful­ly sup­port and engage with this guest pro­vid­ed an avenue to access­ing care they hadn’t pre­vi­ous­ly got­ten, which now allows them to thrive.

Jacob relays that this is in large cred­it to both the guest and the Liv­ing Room staff. He con­tin­ues, ​“often­times those in cri­sis are asked to do much more than they’re able to do and much more than an indi­vid­ual who is not in cri­sis could do.” Ask­ing some­one to research men­tal health care providers in their area, con­firm they accept their health care cov­er­age, sched­ule an ini­tial appoint­ment, and fol­low through on that com­mit­ment on a short time­line is a size­able task for any­one, let alone com­pound­ing these tasks with simul­ta­ne­ous­ly locat­ing oth­er crit­i­cal resources from rep­utable sources all at once. ​“Our staff are able to see that and react in a way that is not dis­con­nect­ing or doesn’t put up bar­ri­ers inad­ver­tent­ly.”

Excit­ed about the future of the Liv­ing Room and the sup­port­ive care they are pro­vid­ing the com­mu­ni­ty, Jacob shares ​“I feel like we have just a real­ly inter­est­ing group and mix of expe­ri­ences on the team and it real­ly adds to our abil­i­ties. I can’t say it enough, how awe­some it is to work with a team of peo­ple who are as ded­i­cat­ed to some­thing like this as they are. It’s not just a job for a lot of them, but a pas­sion and career, and it is excit­ing to watch that.”

Sup­port is always available

What­ev­er you need, there is help avail­able to you. Whether you’re seek­ing care for your­self or some­one you care about, our team is avail­able to pro­vide imme­di­ate sup­port, respite, and resources to address men­tal health con­cerns, social work inter­ven­tions, and behav­ioral health crisis. 

Vis­it KYC’s Liv­ing Room in-per­son: 1585 West Demp­ster Street, Mount Prospect, IL 60056
Con­nect with KYC’s Cri­sis Team: over the phone or receive an in-per­son response any time: dial 847−383−0406
Speak with some­one 24 hours a day from any­where in the U.S.: dial 988
If you or some­one you know is expe­ri­enc­ing a life-threat­en­ing emer­gency, please dial 911. 

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