SB 3138: The Mental Health Industry’s Latest Power Grab

On Wednesday, the Illinois Senate passed SB 3138  by a vote of 37 to 18 and is now in the Illinois House. If it passes, most people won’t notice. There will be no dramatic headlines. Springfield will call it a routine governance update to an existing children’s mental health law. This is the intent—stay low-key; the less noticeable, the better.

But look beneath the surface of this bill. You will find a troubling set of facts: a sitting state senator who is simultaneously the sole officer of a private consulting corporation and a founding board officer of a nonprofit that lobbies for the very industry her legislation is designed to expand — and a network of multimillion-dollar behavioral health organizations positioned to profit from every referral the system generates.