The Kedzie center: Community-immersed mental health from the ground up

Abstract

The Kedzie Center, a psychodynamically-informed community mental health center on Chicago's northwest side, was created through a truly innovative strategy for funding urban mental health services. Legislation in Illinois allows areas of the city to vote by referendum to levy a tax, calculated as 0.4% of property taxes, to support needed clinics directly, of which Kedzie is the first of (currently) four. Each of the six referenda put forward thus far under the Expanded Mental Health Services Act won a landslide endorsement from the voters in its catchment area, who feel ownership and investment in the services they have created. A small group of psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians was chosen by a governing commission made up of appointee community members to run the first EMHS clinic. Since its creation 7 years ago, the Kedzie Center has offered a test case for the success of the EMHS Act, and has been able to use the flexibility its funding model affords to provide long-term primary, ancillary and coordinated care that is tailored to the community it serves. Yet its success as a vibrant hub for this diverse and challenged urban area has not immunized it from the difficulties involved in creating an integrated community psychoanalysis. Kedzie's success has come with both tension and growth regarding its mission, its staff development and its role in the wider community.