Latesha Newson focusing on mental health in her community
A self-proclaimed daughter of Chicago's South Side, Latesha Newson ( ‘07, ’15) gets excited when she talks about a mental health facility set to open later this year in Roseland on the city's southern parameter.
“I grew up in the Englewood and Auburn Gresham communities and saw what happened when the mental health clinics closed,” said Newson, a professor of Social Work at Governors State University (GovState), who was an integral part of a working group charged with making recommendations to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to expand mental health clinic services.
Earlier this summer, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson held a press conference to thank Newson and others who served as a working group to lead listening sessions across Chicago to gather community input.
Ultimately, the group recommended three mental health centers on the South and West sides re-open this year and next, helping to reverse decades of damage from disinvestment in mental health care. The first center will re-open in Roseland.
For Newson, president of the board of the National Association of Social Workers Illinois chapter (NASW-IL), the facilities reopening will be a promise fulfilled.
As an intern therapist in 2014, Newson's first case study explored the death of Laquan McDonald, a teenager who was killed in October 2014 by Chicago police who 16 shots into McDonald, who was walking away.
Following the high-profile case, Newson made a promise to herself to fight to change the narrative, she said, from “Laquan McDonald - 16 shots to Laquan McDonald, youth that grew up in the child welfare system who experienced significant trauma, and lived with untreated mental health conditions…He deserves to be remembered as a human being struggling with mental health crisis.''
In 2020, Newson began working to promote a Treatment Not Trauma policy that sought to reopen mental health facilities and have mental health professionals respond to some emergency situations instead of police.
The policy passed in 2023.
Now, Newson and the working group will serve as consultants throughout the expansion process as clinics reopen in Pilsen and West Garfield Park, and Newson is reminded why she chose social work — and Govstate, where she earned both a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a master's degree in Social Work.
“This is a win for the people and the communities of Chicago, and it feels amazing to be a part of this tremendous work for the city where I grew up. Governors State University absolutely prepared and cultivated this gift of advocacy within me, which is embedded within our social work program mission that is rooted and grounded in the social work ethos."
