Advocate Health Care helping to close mental health services gap

To best address the growing need for greater access to mental health services across the south suburbs, Advocate Health Care today announces the opening of a state-of-the-art $20 million inpatient behavioral health unit at Advocate South Suburban Hospital, in Hazel Crest. In addition to this new unit, which is now open to patients, Advocate Health Care has embedded behavioral health services in nine primary care offices in South Chicagoland – reducing wait times to see a therapist by 90%.

The newly-constructed inpatient behavioral health space includes 27 single-occupancy patient rooms and recreational space — all equipped with the latest technology and enabling care for more than 8 00 patients in the new behavioral health space, and an additional 5,000 patients through partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient mental health services.

“This is an exciting new chapter in our ability to respond to the needs of the communities in south Chicagoland,” says Michelle Y. Blakely, PhD, president of Advocate South Suburban Hospital. “Our new behavioral health unit and supporting mental health programming are examples of how we are quickly adjusting and adapting our models of care as the area’s health needs grow and change.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, behavioral health crises have continued to rise across the nation and closer to home in the south suburbs. In 2022, Advocate South Suburban’s Community Health Needs Assessment identified mental health, including substance abuse and addiction services, as a top priority area of focus needed to improve the well-being of communities the hospital serves.

With the behavioral health integration into primary care, social workers are now embedded in clinics. The social worker screens the patient and schedules them for a telehealth virtual evaluation and, if needed, ongoing therapy. Patients enrolled in this treatment program tend to see significant clinical improvement – going from moderate to severe symptoms down to mild/minimal symptoms after completing treatment. As the program continues to expand, Advocate anticipates having up to 3,700 annual patient contacts at each clinic with embedded behavioral health services.

“We are excited for this newly constructed state-of-the-art space. It's great to be able to provide such a healing environment for our patients,” says Dr. Jessica Nichols, Advocate South Suburban’s medical director of psychiatry. “We are also excited to bring psychiatric care further south to make it more accessible for those patients in need.”

Over the last few years, Advocate South Suburban has invested nearly $125 million in expanding and modernizing the hospital to meet the needs of the community.