Home Visitation Services Fill Gaps in Mental Health Care in Rural Communities

August 13, 2024

Original coverage in WCBU by Camryn Cutinello.

Transportation remains one of the biggest barriers to accessing behavioral health services, especially in rural areas.

But home visitation services are filling those transportation gaps. This is based on interviews with professionals and community members cited in a recently released report from Birth to Five Illinois on children's behavioral health.

Felicia Farden, regional council manager for Tazewell, Woodford and Mason counties, said the agency was surprised by the number of home visitation services in the three counties.

“We actually have a lot, because there's some provided through McLean County that service Tazewell and Woodford county,” she said. “We don't even have a wait list for home visiting. All of our families have expressed that home visiting has been very helpful for them, so that's like our bright spot as home visiting services.”

Kari Clark, regional council manager for Peoria County, said her area has more transportation options, but home visitation remains a desired service for many families. There is currently a wait list in Peoria, she said, but people can often get intervention services through home visitation sooner than going to an office.

Amy Sloan-Gray, one of the people interviewed for this report, is director of education and child development at Bright Point, a statewide organization providing support for families. Sloan-Gray works out of the Bloomington office that serves McLean, Tazewell and Woodford counties.

Bright Point offers two free programs for families: a doula program and a home visiting program. Doulas offer support for people who are pregnant throughout their pregnancy and birth.

“We do weekly home visits with them,” Gray-Sloan said. “A home visit in the doula program looks a little like talking about pregnancy, labor and delivery, breastfeeding, nutrition, mental health, because we all know that that can increase with pregnancy and immediate postpartum.”

The home visit program assists families in the early stages of a child's life, typically from birth to 5 years old.

“We see the families weekly in their home for 90 minutes, and you are facilitating that activity to not only assess the child's development, but also encourage that interaction with the parent and the child, and it's really empowering for a parent to be a witness to their child's growth,” Gray-Sloan said.

Bright Point also is monitoring child development.

“We include cognitive development, language development, motor development, and if a child is falling in an area where the family is concerned, or the screening is showing concern, we have a protocol in which we will screen again, or we can refer directly to early intervention for them to get a screening,” Gray-Sloan said.

Trillium Place, an affiliate of Carle Health, also runs an emergency Mental Health Crisis Line that can be used by people of all ages to get services during a mental health crisis.

Christina Gerlach-Mooney is the director of Behavioral Health Crisis and mental health residential services at Trillium.

She said there are typically about seven to 10 calls to the Crisis Line a Day. Not every call requires an emergency visitation.

Gerlach-Mooney said home visitation services are popular because they give people a chance to see a professional on their terms, adding being discreet is important to them.

“If you didn't know any better, when you look at our cars, they look like everyday cars,” she said. “You know, they're cage cars, but you'd only see that if you're really looking in there. And so you know, our staff are in plain clothes, and so they really tried to make it about, 'I'm here to help.'”

In the case of an emergency situation, a team of two will visit the home. Every team has a social worker or counselor and an engagement specialist. That's a new role filled specifically by those who have faced mental health issues themselves and can speak about their own experiences.

That has been a game changer for their emergency visitation services, said Gerlach-Mooney.

“We've had several who have really bonded with people that just the whole I've been there, I've been you know, through this, we're going to get through this together,” she said. “It has been a huge bridge in decreasing some of that stigma for people.”

Engagement specialists are responsible for following up with people and families to ensure they are receiving the care they need. They can drive people who don't have transportation to appointments and will often attend with the patients.