FOR RELEASE: August 12, 2025
PRESS CONTACT: Deanna Shoss, Communication, 773-478-8417
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has published an audit of the Chicago Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) Mental Health Equity Initiative (MHEI). The objective of OIG’s audit was to determine the extent to which MHEI mental health sites provide equitable and integrated care.
The MHEI is CDPH’s program to support equitable and integrated mental health services for Chicagoans at City-run Mental Health Centers, delegate-run nonprofit health centers, and other community spaces. OIG found that the MHEI provides accessible and culturally competent mental health care that is considerate of community needs, but should address certain factors to better serve clients. To improve its client care, OIG recommended that CDPH:
- offer guidance on how clinics could provide linguistically responsive care;
- collect reliable data on its City-run clinics to evaluate their performance;
- and integrate City-run Mental Health Centers and MHEI delegate agencies as one cohesive network.
“We found that CDPH is in fact supporting equitable and integrated mental health services for Chicagoans, and we are grateful for their efforts in this vitally important work,” said Deborah Witzburg, Inspector General for the City of Chicago. In the course of its audit, in addition to reviewing records and conducting interviews, OIG visited both City-run clinics and delegate agencies to make first-hand observations in the service of a qualitative assessment of potential barriers to those seeking mental health services. That assessment revealed that providers in the MHEI network generally do not impose client-facing barriers to mental health services and do provide culturally competent mental health care, but that the client experience was not consistent across all providers. “CDPH should further integrate City-run Mental Health Centers and MHEI delegate agencies as one cohesive network, provide consistent administrative guidance, and resolve issues around collecting and sharing data from the City-run Mental Health Centers for aligned performance and measurable goals across a unified system,” said Witzburg.
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