Fund Update 2025

May 1, 2025

Dear Family and Friends:

Thanks to your continued support, this marks the eleventh year that David’s fund has been able to promote mental wellness, especially for the underserved. Last year, thanks to your generous donations, we awarded a grant to Trilogy as they addressed the mental-health needs of Chicago residents by opening a new mental health drop-in center in Chatham. We are sharing the story of Keith, a Trilogy Client who spends most of his days at this center, to demonstrate how our network of support is changing lives. The fund has made multiple grants to Trilogy, and Jeff Fenwick, the organizations director of development, tells us that they are “honored to be part of celebrating David’s legacy.”

You may recall that in 2023 we contributed to the Institute for Children’s Mental Health’s third research trial on the cognitive benefits to children whose mothers took choline supplements during pregnancy. Since then, we’ve seen exciting progress. In 2024, Colorado passed legislation to add choline supplements to its Medicaid formulary, and the federal government has agreed to cover half the cost of these supplements starting in 2025. Last Summer, while these developments were unfolding, Joanna and I met with Illinois House of Representatives Leader Robyn Gabel to advocate for the passage of similar legislation in Illinois. That bill, HB1504(see enclosed), has now been introduced, and on March 27th I testified before the Medicare Subcommittee in support of its passage. A copy of my testimony is attached. We won’t know if the bill will pass until later this month, but the hearing was encouraging. We will keep you updated on new developments.

Thank you for your continued support of David’s fund,

Mike, Susan, Joanna, and Peter

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB1504
Introduced 1/28/2025, by Rep. Robyn Gabel
SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

HB1504. 305 ILCS 5/5-5 Amends the Medical Assistance Article of the Illinois Public Aid Code.
Provides that no later than July 1, 2025, over-the-counter choline dietary supplements for
pregnant persons shall be covered under the medical assistance program.
Testimony of Michael M. Mulder

• Based on current research studies, choline supplements are predicted to reduce preterm birth
  rate by at least 20%. The effect occurs because high stress causes women to have very low
  choline levels, which prevents normal maturation of the placenta. The effect is especially
  prominent in poorer Black women, who report high levels of stress from their socioeconomic
  condition and who have higher 1.5 times higher preterm birth than White women. Choline
  supplements help reverse that disparity.
• In 2023, Illinois had 124,820 live births, 40% covered by Medicaid. 10% of births were
  preterm. The minimum cost for Neonatal Intensive care after preterm birth is $3000 and
  average length of stay is 7 days in Illinois for birth at 36 weeks’ gestation, or $21,000, according
  to Lurie Children’s Hospital. The cost of choline supplements for a pregnancy is $150. For the
  cost of 1 preterm infant in the NICU, 140 women could receive a choline supplement. Of these
  140 women 11 White and 3 Black women would otherwise be expected to have a preterm
  birth. Prevention of 2-3 of these preterm births would more than cover the cost of the choline
  supplement.
• Based on 2024 Colorado legislation authorizing Medicaid coverage for choline, the U.S. Center
  for Medicaid Services authorized 50% Federal reimbursement for choline along with other
  prenatal vitamins beginning in 2025. Illinois would be eligible as well.
• Higher maternal choline also supports fetal brain development and can protect babies from
  early symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD), some forms of autism like Asperger’s
  Syndrome, and Schizophrenia. Higher reading readiness scores on entrance to school are also
  reported.
• The American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and
  the American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend higher maternal choline. Choline is a
  natural substance and has been added to infant formula in substantial amounts since 1980.

Fund Update 2024

Dear Family and Friends:

This week marks ten years since David passed away. We thank you for continuing to support the fund we established through the Evanston Community Foundation in his name to build a legacy that promotes mental wellness, especially for those who cannot afford the services they need. On this ten-year anniversary, with the help of your donations, we have sent a grant to Trilogy, a non-profit founded over 50 years ago with the same goals we want to support in the greater Chicago community.

Specifically, our recent grant to Trilogy will help address the mental-health needs of residents on the south side of Chicago, which has long been without the necessary services. In 2012, when former mayor Rahm Emanual closed half of the city’s 12 mental health clinics to bridge a $369 million budget gap, a majority were located on the south side. As Susan Doig, Trilogy’s president, said it created a “mental-health desert” in some areas where the needs for care were far greater than the access to it. Trilogy stepped into the void, purchased, and began renovating a 24,000 square foot mental health center in Chatham. Doig said that the Chatham mental health center will provide “integrated health care” in one location, including primary care, psychiatric care and nursing services. Am ng others, those living with serious mental illness such as schizophrenia will benefit.

While renovations to the mental health center are underway, Trilogy has already opened a peer-run drop-in center that is open 7 days a week. In January alone, 42 individuals took advantage of mental health support, peer support groups, outings, and social opportunities. The center is currently starting therapeutic services for children, adolescents, and adults.

As a follow up you may recall that last year David’s fund contributed to the Institute for Children’s Mental Health’s third research trial on the cognitive benefits to children whose mothers took choline supplements taken during pregnancy. Enclosed we share Dr. Robert Freedman’s February letter to the editor of the Denver Post concerning the need for choline supplements to be added to the Medicaid formulary in Colorado.

Best wishes and thank you for your continued support of David’s fund,

Mike, Susan, Joanna, and Peter

Fund Update 2023

May 13, 2023

Dear Family and Friends,

We honor David’s legacy on what would have been his 40^th birthday with a special grant to the Institute for Children’s Mental Disorders, a nonprofit associated with the University of Colorado.  The Institute is conducting long-term research on the possible impact of pre-birth interventions on babies’ brain development. They have found that when moms-to-be take supplements of choline––a natural nutrient found in food––it has positive effects for their kids. The children in the study are now four years old, and those whose moms took choline during pregnancy have higher attention spans. There is reason to believe that, as their lives continue, they will have lower chances of developing multiple mental disorders, including schizophrenia. attention deficit disorder, and autism.

Our family learned about the Institute’s research from Robert Kolker’s “Hidden Valley Road,” a book Joanna read about a family who had several children who suffered from schizophrenia. With our family history, Joanna said if she had known about the Institute’s recommendation to take choline supplements before her pregnancy with Jesse, she would have taken them. That is when we decided as a family to see what we could do to increase awareness of this promising intervention. In February, our granddaughter, Maxine Mulder Baker, was born. This time, with her new knowledge, Joanna took the choline supplements.

We have had a series of calls with Dr. Robert Freedman, a University of Colorado psychiatrist who directs the Institute’s research on choline. He told us that choline supplements might be especially important for Black mothers; research suggests that the heightened stress Black women face during pregnancy means they absorb less choline. This can result in premature delivery and problems throughout childhood as discussed at  http://www.instituteforchildrensmentalhealth.com.

These findings have received some local recognition: the University of Illinois hospital recently became the first hospital in the country to provide free choline supplements to pre-natal patients. But choline supplementation is still not a widely known option. Dr. Freedman asked us to help the Institute by spreading the word about this promising intervention. His studies show that it has no adverse effects (no prescription is even necessary). We hope you will join us in spreading the word to your family and friends about the benefits of taking choline supplements during pregnancy.  Our grant will also help fund Dr. Freedman’s third and final round of clinical testing on the benefits of choline supplementation.

Best wishes and thank you for your continued support of David’s fund.

Mike, Susan, Joanna, and Peter

Fund Update 2022

July 1, 2022

Dear Family and Friends:

We are writing with some positive developments about the expansion of mental health services for those in need in Evanston and nearby communities. We also want to share how your donations to David’s Fund at the Evanston Community Foundation (ECF) will support these new services.

The good news is that Trilogy, an organization David’s Fund has previously supported in conjunction with ECF, has opened a mental health hotline that provides an alternative to police response when appropriate. Crisis clinicians are responding to calls in Evanston and Skokie, as well as in Chicago’s Rogers Park, Edgewater, West Ridge and Uptown neighborhoods. The service operates from 7 am to 7 pm seven days a week, with plans to move to 24-hour coverage soon. Many of the people it connects with emergency services are homeless.

This year, we are supporting this hotline with our ninth grant since 2014. With help from David’s Fund, which has grown through your generous donations and ECF’s stewardship, Trilogy can improve the odds that a homeless person in crisis can get the full support they need, including consistent access to the correct medications.

Here is the help they provide to approximately 20 people per month in dire need of emergency support and assistance:

Stability, safety, and a warm bed: temporary lodging at a motel so the client can get sleep, decompress, have privacy and be reachable by staff as we enroll them in benefits. 5 nights @ $85/night = $425

Prepaid mobile phone and/or minutes to ensure that clients can stay in touch = $75

Care package of food/groceries, clothes and hygiene supplies: $200

Our grant this year will help support these emergency measures, directly aiding those in need when they need it most. Thank you so much for your contributions to David’s Fund, which continues to grow thanks to your generosity and ECF’s stewardship.

Best,

Mike, Susan, Joanna and Peter

David Mulder Mental Health Fund Update

The following is a list of grants that David Mulder Mental Health Fund in conjunction with the Evanston Community Foundation has contributed to:

2014 – Erika’s Lighthouse

2015 – Chicago School of Professional Psychology

2016 – Erie Family Health Center

2017 – Erie Family Health Center

2018 – Y.O.U.

May 2019 – Trilogy

August 2019 – Trilolgy

July 2022 – Trilogy

June 2023 – Institute for Children’s Mental Disorders

May 2024 – Trilogy’s Chatham Mental Health Center

Here is a brief description of the purpose of each award.

2014: Erika’s Lighthouse

This first grant from the David Mulder Mental Health Fund was awarded to Erika’s Lighthouse to support a depression awareness project at Evanston Township High School (“ETHS”).

2015: Chicago School of Professional Psychology

This second grant from the fund to the Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute at The Chicago School funded the creation of a youth group at ETHS with a goal of providing 20 to 30 students with an opportunity to experience a positive change in attitude towards mental health related issues and increase their knowledge of mental health.

2016 and 2017: Erie Family Health Center

Erie provides high quality health care to people who are uninsured and have little or no income.  Anyone who comes to the center can receive treatment regardless of where they live and no documentation is required for admission to treatment.  The first grant helped to expand the center’s delivery of psychiatric services by supporting the hiring of a psychiatrist and psychiatric nurse.  Then, with the second grant award in 2017, David’s fund helped finance a pilot program of psychiatric education that trained non-psychiatric physicians and other medical providers to better manage low level psychiatric problems.

2018: Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)

Y.O.U. provides mental health counseling to youth through group therapy, case management, crisis intervention, and individual family counseling.  The fund’s grant helped sustain and expand mental health services for 100 low-income, immigrant, and refugee youth in Evanston.

May 2019: Trilogy

This year’s first grant award will allow Trilogy to expand its intake services at Hilda’s drop-in center at Connections for the Homeless in Evanston.  They will be serving the homeless, near-homeless, or shelter-seeking adults, children and families, including Latinos who may be undocumented and other vulnerable individuals.  Trilogy will add staff in order to provide rapid intake, and diagnosis, and to offer short-term treatment until a long-term plan is in place to help them.

August 2019: Trilogy

David’s fund awarded a second grant in 2019 to Trilogy to staff an intake service in Evanston Community Schools beginning this new school year for children in elementary schools who await mental health services provided by Medicaid.  There is a very long waiting list to be enrolled and the grant will allow Trilogy to hire staff devoted to accelerating the enrollment of these children who are in need of mental health services.

July 2022: Trilogy

Trilogy was awarded a third grant in 2022 to help cover the cost of services provided to homeless persons coming to Trilogy from the mental health hotline.  The grant helped provide stability, safety and a warm bed, prepaid cell phone and a care package of food, clothes, and hygiene supplies.

2023: Institute for Children’s Mental Disorders

Davids Fund’s grant to the Institute will help cover the cost of on-going research studying the impact on babies’ brain development when moms-to-be take supplements of choline – a natural nutrient found in food.  The children in the series of studies who have reached 4 years old, and whose moms took choline during pregnancy have higher attention spans.  There is reason to believe that, as their lives continue, they will have lower chances of developing multiple mental disorders, including schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, and autism.

2024: Trilogy’s Chatham Mental Health Center

Our recent grant to Trilogy will help address the mental-health needs of residents on the south side of Chicago, which has long been without the necessary services.

Annual Report

June 18, 2019 Re: David Mulder Fund for Mental Health Dear Family and Friends: Now is a good time for our annual report, because David’s Fund for better communitymental health services, in conjunction with the Evanston Community Foundation (ECF), recently made its sixth grant award, continuing the good work that began from our first grant just weeks after his passing. These grants have been possible only because of your generosity. This year the grantee we selected is Trilogy, whose overall mission is to assist people in their recovery from mental illness by helping them reclaim their capabilities, life direction, and well-being. The grant will be applied to their specific program for “Expansion of Homeless Services.” An important component is its Hope First program, providing early comprehensive treatment to improve the prognosis of individuals experiencing their first psychotic episode. Our grant will allow Trilogy to dramatically expand its intake services at Hilda’s drop-in center at Connections for the Homeless in Evanston. They will be serving the homeless, near-homeless, or shelter-seeking adults, children and families, including Latinos who may be undocumented and other vulnerable individuals. Many of them lack access to primary care, mental-health care, and case management services. Trilogy hopes to provide them with rapid intake and diagnosis and to offer short-term treatment until a long-term plan is in place for them. The plan is to assess 60 to 80 people during the next year and provide community referrals to resources such as Erie Family Health Center, where two of our prior grants helped fund fulltime psychiatric services available to patients regardless of income. At the May 30th ECF Grant Awards Celebration we met Trilogy’s Clinical Director, Susan Doig;Communications and Fund-Raising Director, Colin Moore; and Board Member, Akhil Wagh. We enclose a picture of us taken that special night. Susan and I look forward to making an on-site visit to Hilda’s drop-in center and Trilogy’s headquarters in Rogers Park. We will be provided with a report on their progress, which we will share with you. Thank you for contributing to David’s legacy so that we can continue to help provide mental-health services to those who cannot afford this crucial treatment. The family extends a very special recognition to all those who honored the recent passing of Susan’s mother, Ellen Solovy, on March 27th, with a contribution to David’s fund. There were over 65 gifts received in memory of Ellen’s remarkable life. Susan’s dad, Joe, and Ellen came with us toECF five years ago to help us establish this fund to honor David and benefit others who suffer from mental illness, which makes your contributions all the more meaningful. With deep appreciation, Mike, Susan, Joanna and Peter

Susan’s Sausage Weekend Poem for David

Dear D, this is your day, and you should be here

So we’re bringing you here as we can

By remembering your smile, the fun that you had,

The treasure you were as a man

We’re making your sausage, maybe you know,

And your spirit is here with us all

We make it for you, in your memory dear

It’s the best way to kick off the fall

I picture you here, with your apron and knife

Cutting alongside your Dad

Laughing and working and being together

The incredible times that we had

We’re glad for the love that you gave to us all

And for love that we gave back to you

It goes on today as we gather around

And cheer, Best Batch Ever on cue!

July Update

 

7/25/2017

Re: David Mulder Fund for Mental Health

Dear Family and Friends:

We have some news to share with you about the David Mulder Memorial Fund for Mental Health . We thought it was a good time for a report because David’s fund, in conjunction with the Evanston Community Foundation (ECF), recently made its fourth grant award, continuing the good work that comes from your gifts.

For the second year in a row, we gave money to Erie Evanston/Skokie Health Center. Erie’s mission is to provide accessible, affordable, high quality health care for those in need. Twenty-six percent of their patients are uninsured.

The grant we made last year helped Erie address the shortage of mental health expertise in local underserved communities by partially funding the hiring of their first-ever staff psychiatrist. This met a critical need: prior to 2016, Erie did not provide psychiatric services at all. Erie also added a psychiatric nurse practitioner to its staff.

In September, Susan toured Erie in Evanston and met with Director of Government and Institutional Development Dana Kelly and the new psychiatrist, Dr. Ashok Nagella. (See picture on next page.) Dr. Nagella explained to Susan how Erie tries to take a holistic medical approach, addressing patients’ mental health issues alongside their other medical and nutritional needs.

This year’s follow-up award of $16,500 was co-funded by David’s fund and an anonymous partner. It will help fund a pilot program in psychiatric education for Erie’s non-psychiatrist physicians and other medical providers. This program, led by the psychiatrist hired last year, will teach them how to detect psychiatric conditions, how to manage low-level conditions (such as low to moderate depression) on their own, and how to monitor patients and decide when higher levels of psychiatric care are needed.

The need for these services is great. While Erie has 7,800 patients in Evanston/Skokie, it was only able to accommodate 300 psychiatrist visits last year.  As a result of our gift, many more individuals in our community will receive professional mental health guidance going forward.

Best wishes to you, and special thanks for contributing to David’s legacy.

 

Mike, Susan, Joanna and Peter

 

Susan with Dr. Ashok Nagella

 

 

2015 Evanston Community Foundation Grant Awards

On May 27^th our family attended the Evanston Community Foundation’s 2015 Grant Awards and Celebration.  It was announced on that night that David’s Fund, combined with support from ECF, made a $7,500 grant award to the Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute for Mental Health Education at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.The grant will help fund mental health education for students at Evanston Township High School. The Cohen Institute will provide training to youth-led anti-stigma programming at ETHS, using graduate level students under faculty supervision.

Update / David Mulder Memorial Fund for Mental Health, May 13, 2015

We write to you to honor David, who would have been 32 today, and to report on the progress of his fund.  It is dedicated to addressing mental health issues, the first of its kind in the Evanston Community Foundation (ECF).  When we wrote to you in June last year we had raised nearly $60,000. With your help we have created a self-sustaining fund of nearly $75,000 to date.

Last year David’s Fund, in conjunction with ECF, granted $4,730 to Erika’s Lighthouse – A Beacon of Hope for Adolescent Depression.  This was an excellent choice because this program is designed to promote good mental health for students at ETHS and its middle schools, where David and Joanna proudly attended.  The grant helped to strengthen existing depression awareness programs, including ongoing support of the ETHS Teen Club and training for the ETHS Panel Program, and introduced a new video on depression awareness that was made available to the community without charge.  Earlier this spring, Susan went to ETHS with Sara Schastok, ECF’s President and CEO, and watched an impressive presentation by Erika’s Lighthouse staff, interns, and high school panel members to ETHS students about depression, the ways to erase the stigma attached to discussing mental health issues, and how students can receive help or how to get help for a friend battling depression.

On May 27, 2015, David’s fund will be making a second grant to another mental health organization that will be announced by ECF on that day. We will provide updates from time to time on David’s blog at davidallenmulder.wordpress.com.

April 27^th marked one year since David passed away.  We had a memorial gathering in D’s honor.  We have posted some pictures from that event and memories friends recorded.  One friend wrote: “I remember when I was hanging out with Dave and I told him I was hungry he said don’t worry take this frozen food home and anytime you don’t have anything to eat call me!”  Another wrote, “I’ll never forget how you took me in when I had nowhere to go.  And for that I love you and thank you.”  There are more great memories to be shared on the blog.

Try to save Saturday, August 22, 2015 for an afternoon picnic in Lovelace Park, in northwest Evanston, to honor David’s memory.  His favorite thing to do was make sausage, so we will be grilling lots of homemade sausage and providing other good food.  Check the blog for updates on the picnic plans.

We want to thank you again for honoring David and our family by creating such a wonderful legacy fund to address mental health issues here in Evanston.  If you wish to make another contribution you can call ECF at 847.492.0990, give online at evanstonforever.org, or mail a contribution to Evanston Community Foundation, 1560 Sherman Ave., Suite 535, Evanston, IL 60201. Be sure to specify that your gift is made to the David Mulder Mental Health Fund.

We hope to see you at the August picnic, if not sooner.

Best,

Mike, Susan, Joanna & Peter