LSSI/Endeavor Health Partnership Expands Access at the Welcoming Center
LSSI is proud to announce its selection as a partner in Endeavor Health’s 2024 Community Investment Fund (CIF). LSSI has been awarded $600,000 to increase access to services at its Welcoming Center, adjacent to Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital, which provides behavioral health services including counseling, case management, and psychiatric care to treat adults with anxiety, depression, alcohol and substance use, post-traumatic stress, domestic violence, and other emotional stressors.
Last year, LSSI served 15,352 people through all of its behavioral health programs, including 928 at the Welcoming Center. Those served at the Welcoming Center represent 13,386 appointments.
“We know that one of the biggest challenges in the community is the lack of accessible psychiatric and medication management services, which is a service the Welcoming Center offers,” said Mark Stutrud, LSSI President and Chief Executive Officer. “With Endeavor Health and Swedish Hospital’s Community Investment Fund support, we will increase the Welcoming Center’s ability to see more patients during more hours. This helps us, together, meet some of this need and improve care in the community.”
Endeavor Health selected LSSI as one of 43 local organizations across the Chicagoland area to collaborate on programs focused on behavioral health, violence prevention, housing and food insecurity, access to care, and workforce development.
“Our Community Investment Fund has made a remarkable impact since its launch in 2022, touching over 211,000 lives and supporting a significant expansion of behavioral health counseling, bilingual health education and mobile medical services in our communities,” said Kristen Murtos, Chief Innovation & Transformation Officer at Endeavor Health. “At Endeavor Health, we are not just funders but conveners, bringing together diverse groups to cultivate collaboration and innovation. We are thrilled to grow and deepen the impact of our Community Investment Fund this year, marking a significant step forward in our commitment to enhancing health and wellness across the communities we serve.”
LSSI will use the Community Investment Fund grant at its Welcoming Center, located across the street from Swedish Hospital. Established in 2015, the Welcoming Center provides quick access to mental health services. The Center is a walk-in, safe alternative to seeking care in the emergency department when people are experiencing behavioral health symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder, substance use, post-traumatic stress, and other emotional stressors. Individuals can walk in on their own or can be referred from Swedish Hospital’s Emergency Department or from nearby medical or psychiatric providers. Endeavor Health’s investment will enable LSSI to expand service hours at the Welcoming Center to weekends.
“Sam” is an example of people the Welcoming Center helps. She first came to the Emergency Department at Swedish Hospital with suicidal ideation. Previously, she experienced negative encounters seeking mental health care, so she utilized psychiatric hospitalization as her only means of treatment. Sam said her first encounter at the Welcoming Center “left me feeling much more hopeful than I had in a while. I could tell the people really cared about helping which allowed me to let down my defenses and accept the support.” She began working with a therapist and started attending weekly support groups. After 10 years on disability for chronic depression, Sam began working again as a full-time peer support worker.
In addition to the Welcoming Center, LSSI operates Project IMPACT (Immediate Multidisciplinary Pre-Screening Assessment Crisis Team) embedded at Swedish Hospital’s Emergency Department. Established over 30 years ago, LSSI and Swedish Hospital created this crisis counseling program because many individuals with behavioral health symptoms were being turned away from state facilities and not getting the help they needed. Project IMPACT screens and serves people experiencing a behavioral health crisis and finds them the appropriate care. Project IMPACT is a wrap-around behavioral health model that uses trained counselors who work side-by-side with medical staff with the goal of reducing unnecessary psychiatric hospitalizations.
To learn more about Endeavor Health’s Community Investment Fund, visit endeavorhealth.org/cif.
About Endeavor Health
Endeavor Health℠ is a Chicagoland-based integrated health system driven by our mission to help everyone in our communities be their best. As Illinois’ third-largest health system and third-largest medical group, we proudly serve an area of more than 4.2 million residents across six northeast Illinois counties. Our more than 27,000 team members and more than 7,100 physician and advance practice provider partners are the heart of our organization, delivering seamless access to personalized, pioneering, world-class patient care across more than 300 ambulatory locations and nine hospitals, including eight Magnet-recognized acute care hospitals – Edward (Naperville), Elmhurst, Evanston, Glenbrook (Glenview), Highland Park, Northwest Community (Arlington Heights) Skokie and Swedish (Chicago) and Linden Oak Behavioral Health Hospital (Naperville).
