Director of Crisis Operations
DuPage County Health Department
Wheaton, Illinois
Kathy Carey is the Director of Crisis Operations at the DuPage County Health Department (DCHD). She joined the Health Department in 2002 and has 26 years of experience working in community mental health. In her current role, Kathy provides leadership for the Crisis Continuum of Care at DCHD, which includes Someone to Contact (local and 988 hotlines), Someone to Respond (mobile crisis response teams), A Safe Place for Help (Moderate-Intensity Behavioral Health Crisis Centers, Sobering Center, and Low-Intensity Crisis Residential Program), and Crisis Follow-Up services. After multiple years of collaborative work with community stakeholders, Kathy is proud to be a part of the opening of the Crisis Recovery Center which occurred in September 2025. In previous roles at DCHD, Kathy provided direct services to children, adolescents, and their families through crisis programs and also provided clinical and administrative oversight of adult, youth, and crisis programming. Kathy is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned a Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychology from Benedictine University.
F7 - Building an Ideal Behavioral Health Crisis System
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM MDT