Last March, Winnebago County voters said "Yes" to a new half-cent sales tax that would fund mental health services throughout the county. Monies from the referendum are going -- in part -- to a new public survey.
Dick Kunnert is the vice president of the Winnebago County Community Mental Health Board. He said information from the survey will help them improve mental health and addiction services throughout the county.
"We're hoping to create a real continuum of services within the community where there's connection and cooperation and collaboration between agencies," he said. "We have an opportunity to put together services that may be languishing and are insufficient to meet the needs of people in our county."
Ideally, he said they would implement a "community support system." That, he said, would represent best practices for mental health and addiction services.
"And so that will range from crisis services to support services" he said, "for people after they have been in and have received services from agencies within the community."
He hopes all residents will fill it out, especially from minority communities.
"We really would like to get more response from the African American community and also the Hispanic and Latino coummunites," he said. "We have the survey available in both English and in Spanish."
The new survey takes 10-15 minutes to fill out and Kunnert said the majority of the questions are "checkboxes."
"There'll be optional 'fill-in-the-blank' questions for those who want to provide more details," he said. "But if you want to do it quickly, you can stay to the checkboxes."
Kunnert also said survey-takers will be anonymous; there are no identifying questions in the form.
The deadline to complete the survey is November 23. And, as they have in the past, the board will share the results of the survey with the public.
To fill out the survey in English, click here.
To fill out the survey in Spanish, click here.
