Study prompts new mental health rideshare service in Rockford
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – In the coming months, the Rockford area will see a new rideshare service for mental health care.
This comes shortly after the Region 1 Planning Council released a study about health and transportation in the area.
The study dove deeper into the impact our region’s transportation system has on community health. R1 says up to one-third of regional mental health care providers report patients not receiving necessary services is a significant barrier in the area, which is something they plan to change.
“One of the things that we learned is that while we have a lot of great mental health resources in this community, people are still having trouble getting to all their mental health appointments,” said Jason Holcomb, the director of community impact at R1.
To fill this gap, R1 partners with the Winnebago County Community Mental Health Board to explore and implement rideshare programs for mental healthcare services.
“That will provide either door to door or curb to curb transportation to mental health appointments,” said Holcomb.
R1 learned more about this through the Mchenry County Health Board. They will use Kaizen Health, a third party rideshare service specializing in taking patients to their appointments for this initiative.
“When we looked at best practices, we were looking at what other mental health boards near us also use and getting their testimonials in terms of how successful those programs have been,” explained Holcomb.
R1 plans for the service to be deployed in the following weeks to months. It will also come at no cost to the client or health care provider.
“We worked with members of the Rockford Regional Health Council and about 60% of the responses that we got on a communications form from them indicated their clientele has a high level of need for transportation services,” said Nathan Larsen, a planner at R1 Planning Council. “So, it’s definitely something that will be impactful.”
There will be a web portal healthcare clinicians will use to schedule appointments. Some local organizations funded by the mental health sales tax will also be trained to use it. R1 added transportation will be scheduled through the clinicians to ensure clients are able to get to their appointments and on time.
Copyright 2025 WIFR. All rights reserved.
