Iowa needs more advanced care for the brain-injured

Globe Gazette. Mason City ---

These difficult financial times probably make it unrealistic for state officials to consider a major expansion of health programs, especially in advanced skill areas.

But we hope that high on their to-do list is an examination of long-term care offered for victims of traumatic brain injury.

We brought the issue to light in a recent story about Kacey Vaughan, 30, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident 10 years ago.

After exhausting services available in Iowa, his parents had to turn to Illinois for comprehensive services. Now he is living in Carbondale, Ill., a nine-hour drive from here.

While Iowa is paying $600 a day to Illinois for his care through Medicaid, his parents - Don and Jackie Vaughan believe that service should be available closer to home. The Vaughans, both on the board of the Brain Injury Association of Iowa, are working with others to provide such services. ...

He received care from all the appropriate Iowa agencies - in Ankeny, where he transitioned from a wheelchair to a walker; in Waterloo, a transitional home; at home, receiving services through Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa and Opportunity Village; and Sioux City, where he spent two years until advanced services were not available to help him progress.

Now, in Illinois, he is able to live in supervised housing. He does his own laundry, fixes meals and buys groceries, with help. He also has some employment.

“He absolutely loves it. It makes him feel like he's normal,” his mother said.

He is able to function as well as he does, she said, because of the expertise of the professionals working with him.

His parents are grateful yet wonder why such services aren't available in Iowa.

Brent Seaton, a Mason City neuropsychologist, calls it a hole in the system, one that if filled would give people such as Vaughan the potential to be independent. ...

Jackie Vaughan estimates Iowa is paying $10 million a year for such out-of-state care. ...

Also, while Iowa seemingly makes the best of what it has, it would make more sense to increase levels of care. Money would remain in the state; jobs would be created; people from outside of Iowa could look here for such care; and again, Iowa families would benefit from the proximity of such programs.

This is a complicated matter. But Iowa has some outstanding medical facilities and brilliant medical minds. We hope they can work with state officials to at some point, in some way elevate care available for the brain-injured.

Families like the Vaughans should not have to be nine hours apart.

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