A new kind of mental health refuge opened Friday on Chicago's South Side, offering people in crisis a couch and a counselor instead of a waiting room and a triage nurse. Thresholds launched The Living Room, an around-the-clock alternative to the emergency room, at its South Side Center for Mental Wellbeing in Canaryville.
The Living Room sits at 734 W. 47th Street and held its official grand opening on Friday, according to WGN-TV. The station reports the space is designed as a nonclinical refuge for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis, built with a living room area, a kitchen and sleeping areas meant to feel more like a home than a hospital ward. It's the first facility of its kind at Thresholds' South Side location, the station notes.
Guests who walk in are connected with trained peer support staff who have lived through their own mental health struggles, alongside licensed clinical social workers, per WGN-TV's reporting. Thresholds, described in the station's coverage as a nonprofit organization focused on helping people with their mental health, says the goal is to catch a crisis before it escalates into an ER visit.
Why a Living Room Instead of a Hospital Bed
Thresholds president and CEO Mark Ishaug said a nonclinical setting provides comfort and warmth and shows people a future beyond a clinical setting, according to WGN-TV's report, while noting Thresholds still provides clinical services when they're needed. That philosophy mirrors a similar project the organization ran in McHenry, where its Living Room was planned as a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week walk-in service, as Shaw Local reported in September. That McHenry site, at 616 Illinois Route 31 North, was described as an alternative to traditional emergency room visits for crisis support, with stays limited to less than 24 hours, and was expected to be staffed primarily by peer support specialists with lived experience who are in recovery, the outlet reported.
Chicago's South Side location isn't operating in isolation, either. Alongside the Living Room, Thresholds' South Side site launched its first mobile response team, which WGN-TV describes as professionals who travel directly to people experiencing a mental health crisis rather than waiting for them to come in. The station reports that both the Living Room and the Mobile Response Team South services are free of charge.
Hours and How to Reach It
Accounts of the center's schedule differ. WGN-TV's reporting states the Living Room is open 24/7 Monday through Friday, with weekend hours expected to follow eventually. Thresholds' own program page, by contrast, describes the Living Room as available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and separately states that its services are free of charge.
On its website, Thresholds says it runs mental health crisis response in Chicago through the Living Room and the Mobile Crisis Response Team, and lists the South center's broader offerings as including assessments, individual and group therapy, crisis intervention, psychiatry and medication management. The organization also says it offers a sliding-scale discount based on family size and income for other services at the center.
WGN-TV lists 773-537-3900 as the Living Room's phone number and 773-572-5300 for Mobile Response Team South. Thresholds' own page separately lists (773) 572-5500 as a contact number for accessing services or requesting information, and the organization advises anyone in a mental health crisis to call 988.
Thresholds has other locations beyond the South Side, and McHenry County offers a glimpse of what a broader rollout of this model can look like: Shaw Local reported that the National Alliance on Mental Health McHenry County recently started living room-style crisis services at its own Crystal Lake community hub, suggesting the nonclinical, walk-in approach to crisis care is gaining traction well beyond Chicago city limits.
