The Cook County Community Triage Center, located at a 200 E. 115th St. in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood, is the city’s first pilot building and was made available to residents in that neighborhood because of a need, according to county officials.

Mental health care and counseling is now available year-round 24 hours a day on Chicago’s South Side.

Since June Cook County’s new Community Triage Center (CTC) has made its services available to the public and is located in an area where mental health services are often hard to come by. The center was opened with the help of Cook County Health and Hospitals Systems and Cook County Department of Public Health.

The center is located at a 200 E. 115^th St. in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood.

It’s the city’s first pilot building and was made available to residents in that neighborhood because of a need, according to county officials.

Dr. Kenya Key, chief of psychology at Cermak Health Services and Cook County Health and Hospice Assistance, who is leading the new initiative, believes the location of the CTC is important.

“The location of Roseland was very purposeful,” she said. “We saw a large concentration and high need there.”

She said the patients she and others counsel in the county jail are from Roseland or neighborhoods like it and when they get out of jail they go back to their neighborhood the counseling they received in jail comes to an end.

Key said the CTC is a way for them or anyone else to get counseling if they need it.

“We have nurses, social workers, substance abuse specialists, counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists who are on call,” she said.

It cost $3 million to get the project started along with a $300,000 grant.

The center’s resources are open to anyone and while for some the holidays can be a happy time for others it can be depressing and Key said they have people available at the center to listen. The center is located in a very poor area where violence is often prevalent, adding mental stress to residents directly and indirectly.

“We are located where individuals experience these kinds of situations, any type of emotion, any kind of distress,” she said.

Police officers are also receiving training to recognize if a person they come in contact with is suffering from a mental illness. The result is that the person could be taken to the CTC instead of jail depending on the situation.

“The Chicago Police Department is receiving Crisis Intervention Training with the knowledge to identify and recognize when mental health issues are part of the situation,” she said.

Key said whatever the mental health issue the CTC is available to help at any time.

For more information on what the CTC has to offer call (773) 291-2500.

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— Community Triage Center offers mental health care on South Side —