Children's Service Board

Dear Friends,

Welcome to our valued supporters of the Children’s Service Board!

Whether you have attended our events for years or have been recently been introduced to our current commitment, we thank you for your interest in the Children’s Service Board (“CSB”) and our board’s mission to shine a light on the critical need for high-quality mental health treatment for children in our community.

The CSB, which is a leading affiliated philanthropic organization of Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, is comprised of committed women from diverse backgrounds who share a passion for the hospital’s mission of providing world-class and compassionate care to all children. Our membership, which includes many mothers whose own children have been impacted by Lurie Children’s, have recently committed to be champions for the mental health crisis impacting Chicago’s youth today. In the ever-changing and troubling circumstances facing our community, we have admired the team at Lurie Children’s for remaining agile and for continuously providing superior pediatric care to serve the increased mental health needs of our children. That is why we are so proud to have embarked on our $2 million commitment to the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Lurie Children’s.

Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have seen a great need for increased mental health care in our community. There has been a 30% increase in demand for our outpatient pediatric psychiatric services, and, in 2022 alone, the department cared for 6,099 children in over 30,000 outpatient visits. Meanwhile, the inpatient services have been running at full capacity since 2020. Through the fundraising efforts of the Children’s Service Board, the team at the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health will be able to increase collaborative care efforts (integrating mental health services into medical settings), add a mental health component to resident training, continue their mental health education to a wide span of pediatricians, while allowing for the highest quality care for the record number of patients the department has been seeing.

In 2022, the women of the Children’s Service Board has had the opportunity to learn how this mental health crisis impacts us all. We have been educated by the mental health professionals within the Pritzker Department to learn what they are seeing from our community and learn more about their launch of collaborative care training programs. We have also been able to meet and provide service opportunities to the patients and staff of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. For our second year of our commitment, we are motivated and energized to continue learning, serving and raising funds for this critical work of the department.

For those who have not previously been involved with the CSB, I encourage you to reach out and find ways to be involved with the remarkable group of women, who have become so knowledgeable on the needs of the hospital and the urgency for education and collaborative care models. Thank you to our generous sponsors and donors, our dedicated board members, our retail and vendor partners, and all of you who have an supported this mental health initiative. We are profoundly grateful to all of you for your generosity and enthusiasm for our mission and the mission of Lurie Children’s.

Fondly,

Emily Flaherty