Lawmakers urge Branstad to keep mental health facilities open

MOUNT PLEASANT - Two weeks away from the governor's deadline for approving or rejecting bills passed this year by the Legislature, several lawmakers Tuesday urged Gov. Terry Branstad to sign a measure keeping open for now the state mental health institutions at Mount Pleasant and Clarinda.

Closing two of the state's four mental health facilities has been on Branstad's agenda since early this year, when he eliminated funding in his two-year budget proposal for the institutions, criticizing what he called an antiquated system. He has said a redesigned regional mental health system that delivers home and community-based services would save the state millions of dollars.

But leaders in the Legislature insist the move would hurt some of Iowa's most vulnerable. Several lawmakers used the Mount Pleasant institution, and an audience including former patients and community boosters, as their backdrop to make their case.

'There are mental health issues that go beyond counseling and medications, and that's what this facility provides,” said Sen. Amanda Ragan, D-Mason City, the floor manager of the measure, at the event.

Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, attested that the institution not only provides psychiatric services to those in need, but serves as a training ground for future mental health practitioners and is a last resort for those addicted to drugs.

'If he's got this vision of changing the mental health system, then let's get the vision in place before closing this facility,” Heaton said.

The plan, passed by legislators in a last-minute, $1.839 billion health & human services budget bill, would fund the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute as a state institution until at least next budget year and fund the facility at Clarinda until December.

Heaton indicated the Legislature plans to fund the Mount Pleasant facility 'not just for one year, but far into the future.”

However, current services at the Clarinda Mental Health Institute would be phased out through Dec. 15. The state Department of Human Services would contract with a private nursing facility to operate a 15-bed facility for hard-to-place patients. Hiring preferences for the private facility would be given to current Clarinda employees.

While the governor hasn't indicated whether he will approve the bill, spokesman Jimmy Centers said in a statement that institutes like these provide old-fashioned forms of treatment.

'Modern mental health treatment for our loved ones is best delivered through a new, modern approach rather than a system of institutions designed for the 1800s, like Mount Pleasant and Clarinda, which also lack a doctor,” Centers said. 'Over the coming weeks, the governor will continue reviewing the legislation while considering the best way to move forward with providing high-quality, modern health care for Iowans.”

But former patients of the Mount Pleasant facility who spoke at the event Tuesday said they owe their lives to services offered there.

'We're recovering drugs addicts, and without this place, the people that work here, I would be dead probably right now,” said Raelene Weber of Keokuk. standing next to her husband, Larry. 'Without this place - it gave me my life back.”