WOODSTOCK – If the state doesn’t figure out its budget mess, Joseph Adler might lose his home.

Adler has been living for 10 years in the apartments run by Thresholds, a Woodstock-based agency that serves the mentally ill. Because of the ongoing crisis in Springfield, the group is set to lose $166,370 in state funding – 12 percent of its own budget.

That means no more money to keep open some of its housing programs. No more services to help clients find employment. And likely, as with other county mental health agencies, a round of staff layoffs.

Click here to read the rest of the article at the Northwest Herald's Web site.

He reluctantly spoke of that chaos, referring to it only as a set of "catastrophic episodes," during which he dropped out of Illinois State University, quit computer programming, plunged drastically into debt and generally neglected all forms of responsibility, all while battling bouts of deep depression that came and went at a feverish pace.

In Joliet, at a mental health center, he found the cause: bipolar disorder. And though he's spent 20 years battling his illness, it wasn't until the last year that he's truly found happiness: when he walked through the doors of Thresholds Transitions. Click here to read the rest of this article at the Tribune Local's Web site.

WOODSTOCK – McHenry County mental health agencies and Gov. Pat Quinn had similar plans Tuesday – both spent the day announcing spending cuts.

Twenty agencies served by the McHenry County Mental Health Board stand to lose at least $6.75 million in state money as a result of the ongoing budget crisis, Executive Director Sandy Lewis told the County Board at its Tuesday meeting. This translates to 6,806 clients who will not be able to take advantage of the agencies’ services.

“There is a human element that cannot be underestimated,” Lewis said. Click here to read the rest of the article at the Northwest Herald's Web site.

Documentarian Alison Flowers has completed this piece about Board Member Fred Friedman. In her own words, "he lost everything that mattered to him: his wife, his home and his law practice. Fred's story of loss and recovery represents what many people with mental illness experience in Illinois. But more importantly, Fred demonstrates how the power of these people may be the state’s only salvation."