Rosalind Franklin University and the Lake County Health Department (LCHD) and Community Health Center (LCHD/CHC) are teaming up to improve access to essential health services. Together, we are breaking down systemic and structural barriers to health and health equity across Lake County populations. This includes people who are uninsured and underinsured, as well as those in dire need of behavioral health treatment, podiatric care, medication reconciliation and other preventive care, such as screenings, vaccines, and health education and coaching.
The LCHD/CHC and RFU are key partners in engaging the community around identifying and understanding public health issues and developing solutions.
Their first collaboration, established more than a decade ago, is still going strong. In 2014, RFU and LCHD expanded access to behavioral health care by deploying Chicago Medical School psychiatry residents to LCHD’s outpatient clinic.
“We’re a force multiplier for physician capacity,” said Residency Director Paul Hung, MD ’10, R ’14. “Our residents are U.S. medical school graduates and fully licensed physicians. They bring an academic lens and a rigorous degree of care to the most underserved people in our region. We’re enhancing their training while impressing upon them the importance of serving the community.”
Untreated mental illness can have a significant negative impact on public health, affecting the well-being of individuals, families and communities through increased rates of unemployment, substance misuse, crime, suicide and homelessness.
More than a quarter of adults in Illinois reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in 2023. In 2022, 32.4% of adults who reported those symptoms said they needed counseling but didn’t receive it.
A nationwide shortage of psychiatrists is reflected in Lake County’s patient–to–mental health provider ratio, which was 303 to 1 in 2023. At LCHD, one psychiatrist sees between 500 and 600 people, according to LCHD Interim Executive Director Sam Johnson, MBA, LCPC, RDDP.
“Hiring psychiatrists has been a problem for years and years and years,” Mr. Johnson said. “Our capacity really depends on my ability to hire the workforce. We’ve never had all our positions filled.”
A 31-year veteran of the department and its director of behavioral health, Mr. Johnson led the push to employ CMS psychiatric residents.
“I remember [a decade ago when] we had strategy meetings where we were trying to help people understand that behavioral health was part of health care,” he said. “We won that. Very few people dispute that now. Then it was the issue of, ‘Is it part of public health?’ Today, everyone understands that the field of public health should tackle issues related to behavioral health, including mental health, substance misuse and promoting positive behavior changes within populations.”
Academic/Public Health Collaborations
The psychiatry rotation is one of numerous ways RFU and LCHD collaborate to build workforce capacity and increase access to quality primary care for underserved communities and populations. Additional examples include clinical counseling internships for RFU master’s in psychology students, and A Way Out, an innovative, community-driven strategy to reduce and prevent addiction, overdose and deaths associated with prescription and illicit opioids. RFU researchers have worked since 2016 to collect data on the initiative and evaluate its effectiveness, another way RFU is helping to analyze data to track efficacy and issues, and inform actions that build equity.
Routine foot care, screening and podiatric prevention services, which aren’t covered under Illinois Medicaid, have been offered at LCHD/CHC since 2021, thanks to a cooperative effort with RFU’s Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine. The in-demand service includes Spanish interpretation and is integrated as part of primary-care visits. Funded in part by a grant from the Dr. Scholl Foundation, a clinic staffed by Scholl College students and faculty who see many working patients on evenings and weekends, is saving limbs and, potentially, lives.
“We’ve treated numerous ulcers and diabetic foot infections,” said Pratibha Patel, DPM, assistant professor in the Department of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery. “A lot of our new patients, unfortunately, have uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. We do a lot of patient education. We do medication reconciliation. We sit and talk. It’s all about taking the time. Our first priority is seeing patients who are uninsured and have immediate need.”
Lauren Mitchell, DPM ’26, has received training in treating patients in the Scholl Clinic at LCHD/CHC and also conducted analyses assessing sociostructural determinants of achieving diabetes care management standards of care for LCHD under the guidance of RFU’s Michael Reese Foundation Center for Health Equity Research.
“Diabetes and how it manifests in the lower extremities is an important part of that training and one of the reasons our patients really need to be seen,” said Ms. Mitchell, who cites the “microvascular triad” of diabetes, a set of long-term complications that affect the eyes, the kidneys and the feet.
“We all need to work together, interprofessionally, to support our patients through the prevention and treatment services they need,” she said.
Across every point of collaboration, the relationship between RFU and LCHD/CHC is helping to develop a diverse and highly qualified healthcare and biomedical workforce.
“Our students, faculty and resident physicians working through the LCHD/CHC gain real-world experience via powerful patient encounters and research opportunities that not only improve their clinical skills, but deepen their understanding of barriers to health,” said RFU President and CEO Wendy Rheault, PT, PhD, FASAHP, FNAP, DipACLM. “We’re committed to working in collaborative partnership with people and organizations throughout our region to overcome those barriers.”
Judy Masterson is a staff writer with RFU’s Division of Marketing and Brand Management.