(The Center Square) – Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health has been in the spotlight and now a psychiatric organization is offering guidelines to direct where Illinois goes from here.

The Illinois Psychiatric Society is offering a blueprint of policy pillars to drive conversations about the needs to treat the mentally ill.

The group’s reform ideas fit broadly into three categories: increasing equitable access to care, ensuring the various mental health systems of care are coordinating for patients’ benefit, and doing more to prevent mental health issues from developing and worsening.

“And how do we teach people about mental health, and really addressing families, parents and even faith leaders because a lot of times that’s really the place where you can reach people is at their churches,” IPS president Andrew Lancia said.

Several measures moved through the General Assembly during the spring session, including a bill that would increase the availability and accessibility of mental health resources for students.

Another measure, Senate Bill 724, would create an interagency youth services team to implement new technology for referring families to resources and improve service coordination to address behavioral health for children. 

“It includes a requirement for the Illinois State Board of Education to build a foundation for a plan to implement annual mental health screenings for students in grades K-12,” said Michelle Jenkins, legislative director for the Illinois Department of Human Services. 

According to KFF.org, from Feb. 1-13, 2023, 28.7% of adults in Illinois reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder.