Behavioral Health Coordinating Council

A big chunk of the counselors and social workers in McLean County just got trained in a rising therapy model that can help people overcome anxiety, depression, and PTSD. It's called Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR.

McLean County's three-year plan is the third of its kind, developed by an independent council of mental health stakeholders.

McLean County Board chair Elizabeth Johnston said the priorities in next year’s $144.5 million budget approved this week remain similar to the current year spending plan.

McLean County government has offered an olive branch in its response to notice of default from the City of Bloomington and Town of Normal in a protracted dispute over shared sales tax money.

An Illinois State University researcher says more than half of the McLean County jail population has a mental or behavioral health condition. Mental health programming at the jail is one of the topics ISU's Stevenson Center is studying right now.

Normal City Manager Pam Reece says some of the mental health and behavioral health initiatives McLean County runs are, in effect, pre-funded.

The McLean County Board Executive Committee on Monday approved an audit of the county’s 1% mental health and public safety sales tax fund. The full board will consider the resolution at its regular meeting Thursday.

The tax money would instead stay with the municipalities during that time. The County Board’s Executive Committee is expected to consider the measure during its 4 p.m. meeting on Monday.

Home Sweet Home Ministries will present a grant proposal Monday that, if approved, would cover almost half the money needed to build a proposed shelter village for the unhoused in Bloomington called The Bridge.

McLean County’s Mental Health and Public Safety Fund Advisory Council is recommending around $1 million from the $1.5 million 2025 budget to go toward a non-congregate project for the unhoused population.