A community organization looks to spread its outreach and help improve the quality of life in southern Illinois.

The H Group, an organization dedicated to behavioral healthcare, plans to advance its organization by constructing two new buildings in Carbondale to be completed next year. The H Group offers multiple behavioral health services for people with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, and it offers family and youth services such as big brother and sister programs as well as early childhood mental health consultations. The group’s expansion came after its merge with Southern Illinois Regional Social Services this summer.

The new buildings are located on Emerald Lane on the city’s west side and just off South Illinois Avenue near Arnold’s Market. They will replace the group’s location on the 600 block of West College Street, said John Markley, director and CEO of the H Group.

Markley said the expansion will allow the group to offer more services and lower the company’s operation costs. He said the new buildings will be a significant upgrade because the group leases its present location from the city, which prevents it from being able to make any changes to the property.

Markley said the idea for a new location as well as some funds for the move came from the group’s merge with Southern Illinois Regional Social Services. The July 1 merge made the organization one of southern Illinois’ largest employers, he said.

Markley said SIRSS has been working toward the goal of expanding and, through collaboration, the H Group was able to construct these buildings and add improvements to existing programs.

The merge has been a great asset to both organizations’ goals, Markley said, and both groups’ strengths helped to improve their programs.

“(Before) we were referring to one another. Now we have that one large companionable service,” he said.

Kathy Freitag, former executive director of SIRSS and chief administrative officer for the H Group, also said the merger has been beneficial to both groups.

“The merger really helped us to bring together more thought on the issue (of behavioral health), and we went from looking at one large building to two separate areas with different services in them,” she said.

Freitag said despite the location change, it is still business as usual for the group’s employees.

“What we have done is blended the services of both organizations and have essentially continued on with services in all the places we have previously had them,” she said.

Freitag said the merged group is now evaluating ways to offer better services and expand when possible. She said one option the organization has examined is to offer methods such as walk-in appointments, and the group is working to provide additional services.

Christopher Julian-Fralish, coordinator of student health services at SIU and H Group board member, said the SIU Counseling Center offers services similar to the H Group.

“As far as goals for the H Group and those I have personally working at the counseling center, there are similarities and differences,” he said. “I believe that both work toward assisting people to make better lives for themselves.”

Julian-Fralish said the main difference between the two groups is that the H Group works to meet the needs of people who sometimes find it difficult to access services because of financial issues, while the counseling center meets the needs of students who pay for the services through student fees.

However, he said both groups have collaborated in numerous ways over the years.

“There have been both research and programmatic partnerships in the past,” he said. “The H Group serves as a practicum and internship training site for numerous SIU students, (and) members of the H Group and SIU serve on several community coalitions together.”