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| Thresholds Jail Program Earns Top Mental Health Award |
| By PRNewswire |
| Published: 11/26/2001 |
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The nation's top mental health association has recognized a collaborative project that in one year saved Cook County taxpayers more than $1 million on the treatment of mentally ill patients caught in a virtual 'revolving door' between psychiatric hospitals and prisons. The Thresholds Jail Program has realized a dramatic reduction in the number of days participants spend in state-funded hospitals or in jail, according to Jerry Dincin, executive director of Thresholds, a private, not for profit psychiatric rehabilitation agency. The American Psychiatric Association has selected the program as one of two Gold Achievement Award winners for 2001, which includes a $10,000 prize made possible by a grant from Pfizer, Inc., U.S. Pharmaceuticals. Thresholds' partners in the award-winning program include Cermak Health Services at Cook County Jail and the Illinois Office of Mental Health. At Cook County Jail, at least 10 percent of the inmates, approximately 1,000 individuals, are on psychiatric medication for afflictions ranging from depression to schizophrenia to bipolar disorder. Each day, because the jail is overcrowded, if 200 people are admitted, 200 must be discharged, whether they are ready or not. The average Thresholds Jail Program member has been hospitalized 12 times, and arrested 35 times. Dincin's 'Bridge Model' uses a team approach to provide comprehensive and integrated services to members with both a history of psychiatric hospitalizations and arrests. Thresholds' program is distinguished by its long-term commitment; participants receive services for as long as necessary. The four-year-old program currently serves 68 members. In its first full year of operation, providing services for 30 members, the jail program resulted in an 82 percent reduction in jail time, and an 85 percent reduction in time spent in state hospitals, resulting in a total savings of more than $1 million. For 13 Thresholds members who have completed two full years in the jail program -- compared to the two-year period prior to their participation -- the program successfully reduced jail time by 86 percent and hospital days by 87 percent, resulting in a total cost savings of nearly $456,000. |
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