http://rockrivertimes.com/2009/08/12/rockford-dumping-ground-for-mentally-ill-and-homeless-part-two/ The Rock River Times - THE VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1993 Thu, 16 May 2013 22:09:49 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://rockrivertimes.com/2009/08/12/rockford-dumping-ground-for-mentally-ill-and-homeless-part-two/comment-page-1/#comment-176 Richard Apple Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:56:04 +0000 http://rockrivertimes.com/?p=19616#comment-176 Overall a balanced article, but I need to draw attention to a couple of errors. 1) Singer does not get referrals from counties in southern Wisconsin. I said that the 20 counties that we serve in Illinois extend to the Wisconsin border. 2)You started out correctly by saying that "some" of the people referred from outside Winnebago county choose to relocate in Rockford. However, you include in the same sentence "many turn to homeless shelters ... often resorting to criminal behavior..." This creates the erroneous impression that there are a large number of people from outside of Rockford discharged from Singer to the homeless shelters and engaging in criminal behavior. The total number of people from outside of Rockford discharged to Rockford would be less than 10 per year. We discharge a similar number of people from Rockford to locations outside of Rockford. The number of patients discharged from Singer engaging in criminal behavior is small, just as the number of people with mental illness in general engaging in criminal behavior is not higher than the % of the population at large engaging in criminal behavior. Overall a balanced article, but I need to draw attention to a couple of errors. 1) Singer does not get referrals from counties in southern Wisconsin. I said that the 20 counties that we serve in Illinois extend to the Wisconsin border. 2)You started out correctly by saying that “some” of the people referred from outside Winnebago county choose to relocate in Rockford. However, you include in the same sentence “many turn to homeless shelters … often resorting to criminal behavior…” This creates the erroneous impression that there are a large number of people from outside of Rockford discharged from Singer to the homeless shelters and engaging in criminal behavior. The total number of people from outside of Rockford discharged to Rockford would be less than 10 per year. We discharge a similar number of people from Rockford to locations outside of Rockford. The number of patients discharged from Singer engaging in criminal behavior is small, just as the number of people with mental illness in general engaging in criminal behavior is not higher than the % of the population at large engaging in criminal behavior.

]]>