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Sep tember 18, 2015 • $1 .0 0
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DAILY CHRONICLE DeKalb and Sycamore square off tonight at Huskie Stadium / B1
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Senior services facing severe cuts Fox Valley Older Adult Services branches closing in DeKalb, Aurora By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com
Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Fox Valley Older Adult Services will close its DeKalb and Aurora day service facilities in October because of lack of state funding.
DeKALB – Sharon Schopfer received invaluable help from Fox Valley Older Adult Services from 2013 to 2014 as she cared for her husband, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. With the agency preparing to close its doors in DeKalb and Aurora, she’s concerned that others in her situation will not have that support. “The care that [clients] are given is just amazing,” she
said. “They are remarkable to work with and to see it close is heartbreaking. ... The alternative would be to hire someone for in-home care, which is very costly.” FVOAS is a nonprofit agency that provides adult day care and in-home services, community programs, breakfast and lunch services, and caregiver support groups from locations in DeKalb, Aurora and Sandwich. Agency officials said unless legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner can agree on a budget
plan by Oct. 16, they plan to close their DeKalb and Aurora Adult Day Service facilities. If funding doesn’t come through from the state soon, agency officials said its main headquarters in Sandwich may shutter as well, but for now, will stay open because it is partially funded through other sources like private donors. Schopfer said day-to-day care of a loved one with health problems can be overwhelming. “It really wears you down,” she said. “Your own heath is
in jeopardy and breaks down because you are worrying and trying to take care of someone you love. It takes a toll.” Schopfer’s husband now lives in a nursing home, but she still visits FVOAS to attend a caregiver support group twice-a-month, where she said she has found friendship and ongoing support and insight from the eight to 14 other caregivers who attend. “The support group we
See SERVICES, page A5
Aides who worked for Rauner, paid by the state
JAIL AND THE MENTALLY ILL
By JOHN O’CONNOR The Associated Press
Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Deputy Pete Hove, with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, fills small paper cups with prescriptions for inmates Thursday at the DeKalb County Jail.
Correctional facilities often become warehouses for those with disorders By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Jane Low fears the caring, big-hearted brother she grew up with has been lost beneath untreated bipolar disorder that continues to worsen within the confines of a state mental institution. Her brother, Terry Low, was a talented golfer, DeKalb High School graduate and student at Northern Illinois University. Since 2012, he’s been in and out of the DeKalb County Jail on two-month sentences on charges including driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a suspended license, possession of a controlled substance and most recently, battery causing bodily harm. But his recurring arrests and worsening mental health reflect a larger problem that jail officials and local mental health professionals acutely are aware of: Jails serve
make something of himself and to get balanced and get work, but he was never stable enough to get it all done right,” Jane Low said. “These Inmates who reported being told by a mental health professional that they had kinds of people, they so don’t fit a mental health disorder: 36.6 percent of prison inmates, 43.7 percent of jail into society that they end up hanginmates ing out with the wrong groups of Inmates who said they had received some counseling or therapy from a people.” trained professional for these problems: 35 percent of prison inmates, 39.2 Unlike prisons – where inmates percent of jail inmates serve extended sentences – jails hold those awaiting trial, or serving About 15.4 percent of prisoners and jail inmates who reported taking prescripshorter sentences. DeKalb County’s tion medication for these mental health and emotional problems at the time of jail houses about 3,000 inmates a the offense for which they currently are being held: 19.7 percent year, about 30 percent of whom enInmates at DeKalb County Jail with an outstanding prescription to treat a ter the facility with an outstanding mental illness: 30 percent prescription to treat a mental illSource: Bureau of Justice Statistics, DeKalb County Jail ness, Klein said. After he was found unfit to stand as warehouses for the mentally ill. pattern of manic highs and depres- trial in August on charges includOften, experts said the mentally ill sive lows that too often landed him ing aggravated battery with a deadwind up in jail because they stop in handcuffs, Jane Low said. Al- ly weapon, Terry Low now is at taking medication or do not receive though he has tried live-in homes Chester Mental Health Center, Iltreatment they need, either because and sought professional treatment, linois’ maximum security forensic they decline to seek it or it is un- he always seemed to fall in with the mental health facility. Although his stays in county available. wrong crowd, she said.
By the numbers
For years, Terry Low lived a
“It was important for him to
See MENTAL ILLNESS, page A6
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SPRINGFIELD – At least three government administrators began working on hiring employees for Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration last winter while on the comptroller’s office payroll, using taxpayer dollars from a separate constitutional office before Rauner had even taken the state’s reins. Rauner, a Republican who promised to clean up clout-laced government hiring, relied on comptroller’s employees to get his administration rolling, including recommending candidates for politically affiliated jobs, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Two went on to become senior Rauner managers, including one who oversees hiring for the governor’s office. Rauner aides say the practice was appropriate, efficient and pre-approved by the comptroller’s independent inspector general. But political experts and reform Gov. Bruce advocates say the practice Rauner was improper and breached divisions between constitutional offices. “You want to help out the governor? Do it on your time, on your nickel,” said Kent Redfield, an expert on political ethics at the University of Illinois-Springfield. “To me, that’s pretty clearly wrong. One of the functions of the state comptroller’s office is not to act as an HR department for the governor’s office.” Private funds typically cover a new governor’s transition. The use of comptroller employees by the multimillionaire former venture capitalist, who vowed to “shake up” how Springfield does business, raises questions about whether he didn’t want to be hampered by bureaucratic restraints or was cutting corners and blurring lines set up to prevent conflicts between separate units of government. Rauner spokesman Lance Trover scoffed at the reproach, emphasizing the inspector general’s blessing. “Only in Illinois do you get attacked for doing things the right way,” he said. It’s impossible to say how many taxpayer dollars, appropriated for the comptroller’s job of paying the state’s bills, financed the work of Judith McAnarney and Matthew Magalis, who were setting up meetings with Cabinet-level agencies and discussing applicants to fill jobs during the workday while Rauner was still a private citizen. The emails reviewed by the AP came from a half-dozen state agencies under a Freedom of Information Act request. But 19 agencies are keeping related documents secret, despite Rauner’s pledge of government transparency.
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