By focusing service delivery on people where they live as they are recovering from a crisis event, the partnership between historic West Side Chicago community mental health centers and our vital West Side safety net hospitals will ensure behavioral health patients of these hospitals have a seamless transition back to their communities to continue their healing journeys. Our partnership seeks to improve health outcomes, reduce health care costs, close gaps in service delivery, and improve the lives of all residents that live on the West Side of Chicago.

The Collaborative Bridges Team operates with the foundation that reaching someone as they experience adverse stress is critical to avoiding their developing deeper trauma and chronic mental illness. It recognizes that low rates of follow-up care after hospitalizations, coupled with high rates of rehospitalization immediately after psychiatric hospitalization, indicate a need for more robust and comprehensive post-hospitalization care.
 
Collaborative Bridges believes that treatment is a partnership between the client, staff, and a network of family and friends within the community and that is where strength is found. We believe that enabling healing in a safe, trusted environment is critical for the well-being of those we serve.  
 
The Collaborative Bridges model is a “proof of concept” that is meant to be scalable. As we learn and adapt, we envision this model becoming a template that can be replicated in many other communities.