DECATUR - Michael Nance no longer spends his time glued to the TV, letting life pass him by.

As a resident of Heritage Grove, an apartment complex for people with serious and persistent mental illnesses, he's surrounded by people who don't turn away when they see him coming and has joined others working on mental health and supportive housing issues.

He also has been learning how to cook.

"The biggest change in me is my outlook," said Nance, 48, a carbon dioxide tanker driver who developed bipolar disorder and schizophrenia after suffering a severe head injury in 1988 when a high-pressure pipe exploded at his workplace. "I'm much cheerier and more positive."

Nance also is a success story for Heritage Behavioral Health Center, as it prepares to celebrate 50 years of helping people with mental illness, which includes more than 35 years of treating chemical dependency.

"Last year, we touched more than 7,000 men, women and children," said Diana Knaebe, president and chief executive officer since 2002, "helping them turn lives that were often filled with fear, helplessness, hopelessness and despair - a living nightmare - into one of hope, where dreams again flourish."

Many people living that kind of nightmare came before former Macon County Judge Gus T. Greanias in court. As a result, he was among the people who in 1955 organized the Macon County Mental Health Association, which in turn established the Mental Health Clinic of Macon County on March 1, 1956.

"The community was quite progressive for starting a community mental health clinic as early as they did," Knaebe said.

Renamed the Decatur Mental Health Center in 1970, it was given its current name of Heritage Behavioral Health Center when it moved from the Decatur Memorial Hospital campus to 151 N. Main St. in 1998.

The center also has undergone other changes, growing from six employees and a budget of $31,000 in 1956 to 210 employees and a budget of more than $10 million today.

It is the only mental health organization in the county to have received a Nicholas E. Davies Award of Organizational Excellence for its electronic patient records, earning the honor in 2001.

Knaebe said Heritage has served more than 14,400 different people since May 1, 2000, with more than 1 million service contacts during that same period.

Although Heritage has received local tax dollars since 1960, when the Macon County Mental Health Board was established, the majority of its funding comes through contracts with the state of Illinois for individuals who cannot pay the full cost of treatment.

Macon County Circuit Court Judge John Greanias, son of Gus Greanias and an emeritus member of the Macon County Mental Health Association's board, would like to see that change.

"We've lost some of the community involvement that has been so important in the center's history," Greanias said. "Heritage is not some governmental bureaucracy; it's a part of Macon County and belongs to the people."

Lost because of funding shortages have been programs that provided home visits to families with children at risk of developing a serious emotional disturbance.

Unfortunately, childhood is when an individual's ability to develop coping skills is strongest, Knaebe said.

"We need to find a way, as a state and a nation, to provide more early intervention and prevention services," she said.

One area where Heritage has been able to expand services to meet the need, by contrast, is in providing supportive housing for people with mental illnesses as anti-psychotic medications have improved and the number of mental institutions has declined over the past 15 years.

In addition to 30 beds for short-term psychiatric and addiction care and 16 at two group homes for adults with serious mental illness, Heritage has 79 supportive housing units in all: on Macon Street (in partnership with the Decatur Housing Authority), at Heritage Grove, Heritage Fields and Harbor Place.

Harbor Place opened earlier this year in partnership with Dove Inc. to give women recovering from substance abuse a safe place to live with their children.

Related services for the homeless, provided in part by Heritage, are Oasis Day Center and Homeward Bound.

Although Nance doesn't believe he would be homeless had he not moved into Heritage Grove in 2002, he said his life in an apartment out in the community wasn't going so well. He often forgot to take his pills without the medical supervision he receives at Heritage Grove and didn't have the camaraderie he enjoys with his neighbors now.

"They understand when I've had a tough day and am not feeling right," he said.

The support has given Nance the confidence to join the Illinois Supportive Housing Providers Association two years ago and the Illinois Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council on Jan. 1.

He's also learned how to make lasagna, barbequed chicken and country fried steak with the help of cooking classes and the Food Network.

"I feel grateful for all the hard work by the people at Heritage that made this possible," Nance said. "To them, you're not just a number or a paycheck. They take the time to know you as a person."

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.