Health leaders identified the top two health issues facing Kane County residents in terms of scope and severity as “mental health” and “substance abuse.”

From data collected in the survey, the Health Department discovered the following:

• 17.8 percent of adults rate their mental health as “fair” or “poor.”
• 27.7 percent of adults experienced three or more days of poor mental health in the past month.
• 13.2 percent of adults perceive most days as “extremely” or “very” stressful.
• 34.0 percent of adults have sought professional help for a mental or emotional issue.
• 12.2 percent of adults report being hit, slapped, pushed, kicked or hurt in any way by a partner.
• 7.7 percent of parents with children aged 2 to 17 rated their children’s mental health as “fair” or “poor.”
• 37.3 percent of Kane County children aged 0 to 17 live below 200 percent of the poverty level. (Represents over 52,000 children).
• 13.9 percent of the population age 5 and older are linguistically isolated.
• 23.4 percent of residents self-identified as being food insecure.

Child Mental Health Initiative

Isaacson told the committee that the Kane County Heatlh Department has secured a $2.3 million grant through the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation to implement a children’s healthcare initiative.

The grant includes a $200,000 initial award for the planning year, then $2.1 million available for implementation during the next six years.

Already, the Health Department is creating a database of parents, caregivers and youth interested in providing input into the planning process, designing a data system and evaluation plan for implementation and developing training plan for key community partners.

Project partners include the Kane County All Our Kids (AOK) Early Childhood Network, the Kane County Regional Office of Education and all nine Kane County school districts, the Kane County Juvenile Justice Council and the Kane County Behavioral Health Council.