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Mental Health Group to Honor State Representative

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 21:02 CST

By Tona Kunz & Adam Kovac

A national report released last week by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill gave Illinois a failing grade for mental health services and per capita spending on mental health care.

But that doesn't mean the mentally ill have no advocates in the state.

At about the same time the report was being finalized, the local chapter of NAMI honored state Rep. Patricia Lindner, a Republican from Sugar Grove, with the group's first advocacy award.

Lindner has been one of the most influential friends of the mentally ill in the county and state for more than a decade, said Lynda Rivers, president of the chapter of NAMI representing southern Kane, Kendall and DeKalb counties.

The Jim McNish Advocacy Award is named after the local NAMI chapter's former president, a Geneva businessman who serves on the board for the state chapter of NAMI.

McNish said that a lot of the credit for what the local chapter has accomplished goes to Lindner.

Advances in medication for mental illnesses in the early 1990s opened the door for new ways to mainstream the mentally ill to society and options for how to deal with those who ran afoul of the law.

"It became obvious this was a different world," said McNish.

Lindner was there from the start to help advocates find their way through the bureaucratic process.

During the last 13 years, Lindner has sponsored or co-sponsored several pieces of legislation aimed at improving life for the mentally ill or their families, McNish said.

Lindner helped get insurance parity for mental illness treatment. She worked with the Illinois Sheriff's Association to allow any county with a mental health court to create local fees to supplement care costs. That legislation helped get Kane's court off the ground last month, by letting the county board put on court filings an extra $10 fee funneled to the mental health court.

She launched the efforts to refine the process of committing people to mental health facilities. Although the legislation failed, elements of it were incorporated into later bills. The most notable outgrowth of Lindner's initial bill was the requirement that commitment and treatment hearings occur simultaneously, ensuring no one languished unmedicated in a facility.

She's working with Cook County officials and Kane County Chief Judge Donald Hudson to craft legislative statewide guidelines for the courts to ensure consistency in eligibility, treatment and follow-up care.

Lindner said the legislation is important because so many families are affected by mental illness.

According to a U.S. Surgeon General report more than 22 percent of Americans experience a mental disorder each year and one in five American families has a relative with a mental disorder.

Addressing the chemical imbalance caused by the illness can reduce crime, hospital visits and drug and alcohol abuse, which saves all taxpayers money whether they know someone who's mentally ill or not.

"A lot of times the human services area is overlooked in the budget and our society is going to be in trouble if these things aren't addressed," Lindner said.

A real hair-raiser: The Devil's in the details - especially on the witness stand.

Just ask Getino Robinson, who says he recalls everything about being questioned by Elgin detectives trying to solve a deadly home- invasion robbery.

The Rockford man testified last week at great length about the two cops he says pressured him into making a statement about the Feb. 11, 2003, death of Kyle Juggins.

He even told how a detective named Gorcowski refused to let him call a lawyer and offered him a deal to talk.

"Gorcowski had a pen and he put it on the table and said, 'You can be on this side or this side,'" Robinson recalled. "He said, 'You can be on this side and get 20 to life or this side and get six.' "

There is a Detective Brian Gorcowski on the Elgin police force and he does investigate homicides. Robinson described Gorcowski in great detail, right down to the hair on his head.

Enter the problem: Gorcowski is bald. He's got a gleaming dome that makes him look like Detective Vic Mackey on the TV show "The Shield." It's true, Gorcowski could be in a Michael Chiklis look- alike contest.

It's those kind of slip-ups Kane County prosecutors hope will unravel Robinson's attempt to have his videotaped statement ejected from the case against him.

Robinson, 26, has pleaded not guilty to murder and other offenses. Police say Juggins, 32, was stabbed and fatally shot in his Abbott Drive apartment by robbers in search of money he had stashed in a closet safe.

We'll see how Robinson's story goes over with Judge Grant Wegner, who is scheduled to rule on the motion March 14.

For the record, it was Elgin Detective Dan O'Shea, who maintains there was no wrongdoing, who got Robinson to talk. And for the time being, O'Shea still has all the hair on his head.

Source: Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.

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