Policy Center

At NAMI Chicago we are grassroots advocates who speak up for policies and system innovations that will improve the mental health of people across Cook County, especially those affected by mental health conditions. We know that when people have access to health, home, community, purpose, and equity, they can, and do, recover.

Together, we can ensure people get help early, people get the best possible care, and people are not harmed, locked up, or left without a place to live because they’re living with a mental health condition.

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NAMI Chicago’s four policy priority areas for 2025 are:

QUALITY TREATMENT & SUPPORT

NAMI Chicago believes that everyone should be able to get the right mental health services they want at the right time. We advocate for improved availability, accessibility, quality, safety, and dignity in mental health treatment and the other mental health supports that people seek. We advocate for a strong workforce that is capable of meeting the community’s needs.

EQUITY

NAMI Chicago believes that anti-racism is at the core of advocating for our community’s mental health. We advocate to transform systems that harm marginalized groups, such as the crisis response system and court system. We emphasize policies that support the wellbeing of those groups, such as expanding care and cultural responsivity in BIPOC communities, diversifying the mental health workforce, and addressing trauma.

PREVENTION

NAMI Chicago believes that people deserve mental health support before symptoms are at their worst. We advocate for early screening and education, and to improve the care available to children and young adults. We fight to keep people out of the crisis and court systems through improving community mental health care and increasing connection to longer-term support.

COMMUNITY CONDITIONS

NAMI Chicago believes that advocating for mental wellness includes fighting for housing, economic opportunity, and human rights. We support and elevate these campaigns and offer mental health expertise to partners in these fields.

We advocate with the following core principles:

Lived experience: We elevate people’s lived experience to influence decision-making in policy and other systems. We treat people as people, regardless of diagnosis, history, or symptoms, and we push others to do the same.
Advancing the sector: We strive to be continually learning. We push our community and systems to think bigger, embrace innovation and best practice, and reject the status quo.
Education: We see education as a core component of systemic change, and always seek opportunities to share knowledge with decision-makers and our community.
Mental illness and mental wellness: We fight to improve mental wellness on a community level, while still prioritizing advocacy for people with serious mental illness, following our organization’s history and vision.

Where to Go?: Alternatives to Emergency Departments in the Behavioral Health Crisis System in Cook County

This white paper explores the behavioral health crisis continuum and efforts in Cook County to build out these services. There are three components to the behavioral health crisis response system—someone to call, someone to respond, and somewhere to go. The findings of this paper elevate a need to shift away from a one size fits-all, emergency department-based approach to crisis intervention that can work for anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Read it here

Policy Campaigns

Our policy priorities pave the way for NAMI Chicago’s work on numerous policy and advocacy campaigns. Below are just a few of our key issues in 2024.

Mental Health in the Crisis System

Improving mental health crisis care so that every person having a mental health emergency can get the most appropriate, safe, and timely support, as well as connection to follow-up care in the community.

Mental Health in the Court System

Improving how people with mental health needs are treated in the ‘justice’ system, including in the courts, jails, prisons, and state psychiatric hospitals, as well as supporting re-entry into the community.

Campus Mental Health

Expanding prevention and early intervention services, education and supports for college students on Illinois’ 2- and 4- year campuses.

Child and Family Mental Health

Increasing prevention and early intervention services, education and supports for children and youth, wraparound supports for their families, and expanding perinatal mental health care.

Health Insurance

Transforming Medicaid and private health insurance to increase access, affordability, and quality of mental health care. This includes advocating for enforcement of Illinois’ and federal parity laws.

Behavioral Health Workforce

Promoting policies that reduce barriers to care, emphasize quality in all settings, increase training and certification capacity to enable more people to enter careers in mental health and substance use treatment, emphasize diversifying the workforce, and making it easier for people with lived experience to enter the field.

Other Campaigns We Prioritize

Trauma and Community Violence:

Supporting initiatives to reduce community violence, including supporting gun control efforts, and expanding programs to treat the trauma of those affected by violence.

Safe and Affordable Housing:

Supporting campaigns that expand housing options in our community, including supportive housing for people with complex needs, homelessness prevention, affordability, and fair housing.

Societal Inequity:

Supporting advocacy campaigns of all kinds to address inequities in opportunity and quality of life, dismantle structural racism, and support those who are marginalized.

Healthy Communities:

Supporting efforts to increase equitable access to healthy activities that support people’s wellbeing, like improving access to healthy food and exercise as well as promoting clean, safe, and beautiful communities.

If your organization would like to partner with NAMI Chicago on our policy and advocacy efforts, please contact Jen McGowan-Tomke, Chief Operating Officer, at jen@namichicago.org. Sign up for policy updates here.

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