On behalf of the Riverside Township Mental Health Board, I am writing to thank the community for supporting our efforts to assess our community’s needs and to plan for the most important mental health and related services in the future.
In November of 1972, the voters of Riverside Township approved a referendum creating a special tax, the purpose of which is to fund community-based services for the mentally ill, developmentally disabled (including autism), and the chemically dependent citizens of Riverside Township.
The RTMHB was created soon after to plan, fund and monitor the provision of these services. Since that time, it has supported an array of community-based, cost-effective and non-duplicated services in the township.
RTMHB supports those programs which sustain and improve the well-being of individuals, their attitude toward themselves and their adjustment to the community and each other and acts as a source of mental health information and as a representative of the community.
The members of the Riverside Township Mental Health Board are now inviting our neighbors to share their opinions and priorities as we plan for the future. On Saturday, Nov. 5, we held a successful community forum to discuss the community’s needs and to gain perspectives from local residents. We will be interviewing key community leaders to gain more in-depth information about current demand for mental health and related services and trends they are noting.
The third part of our process is an online, anonymous survey. We invite all readers of this publication who live in Riverside Township to participate; the link to the survey is
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RSMHBsurvey
For residents who may wish to complete this survey on a paper form, please contact John Shustitzky at 708-302-6920 and he will arrange to send you a survey and a postage-paid return envelope.
When we have reviewed the community’s input and summarized their ideas, we will share the results with the community and make copies available to all who are interested.
Thank you again to those who attended our community forum, and for those of you who are willing to share your ideas with us through the survey.
Timothy Heilenbach, president
Riverside Township Mental Health Board
Brookfield
