Compromise reached to keep Iowa Mental Health Institutes open until Dec. 15

DES MOINES - Two GOP legislators Friday said they have reached a deal with Gov. Terry Branstad's office that will keep mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda open through Dec. 15 rather than closing at the end of June.

Under the agreement worked out by Reps. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, and Cecil Dolecheck, R-Mount Ayr, both facilities eventually would become privatized.

The two legislators said they worked out the accord with the governor's staff and the Department of Human Services to operate the Iowa Residential Treatment Center in Mount Pleasant and provide 'appropriately staffed” psychiatric mental health services in Clarinda until mid-December.

According to the governor's office, employees at Clarinda and Mount Pleasant will not receive layoff notices in the near future if the proposed agreement is passed by the Iowa House and Senate before the legislative session ends.

The facilities will maintain current staffing and service levels through Dec. 15, unless placements for all patients are found before, Branstad spokesman Jimmy Centers said. Additional hires and/or rehires will not be needed.

According to the parties involved, state officials will allow the residential treatment center at Mount Pleasant to continue offering substance abuse services, retaining 33 jobs in the community.

After Jan. 1, the Iowa Department of Public Health will seek a private substance abuse treatment provider to operate the facility. They will continue providing treatment services as well as mental health/substance abuse dual diagnosis services that would be funded via third-party insurance payments and substance abuse treatment funding through the Department of Public Health.

The agreement also addresses psychiatric services at the Clarinda Mental Health Institute. The facility, which is an acute psychiatric hospital, will continue providing mental health services through Dec. 15. DHS will work with the community to identify mental health providers to offer services after Jan. 1.

'We have been working with our colleagues in the Legislature and departments to look for ways to continue the services being offered in these two facilities. This is a solid agreement for both Clarinda and Mount Pleasant,” Dolecheck said in a statement.

Sen. Amanda Ragan, D-Mason City, co-leader of the House-Senate health & human services budget subcommittee, said she would reserve judgment until she had a chance to read the actual language implementing the proposed changes.

'I'd be concerned about what level of care are we looking at and local access to services. Will it still be the same level of service that they've had in the past?” said Ragan, noting that 33 employees at Mount Pleasant would be a decrease from prior staffing levels.

'I'd have to take a closer look at the proposal, but it does kind of concern me that we're doing this late in the game,” she said.

Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, said Friday's agreement still represented a 'step backward” for mental health services in Iowa.

'Given the enormous need, we should be expanding mental health services through our institutes, rather than reducing them, and this still is a reduction,” Hogg said. 'Gov. Branstad's proposal is just wrong for people who have severe mental health problems and is out of touch with what Iowans want our state government to do.”

Senate Democrats have pushed legislation to keep the rural MHIs in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda open while an alternative service delivery strategy is devised, but Branstad told reporters Thursday that legislators were 'looking backward” in trying to keep open mental health institutes that are 'outdated and outmoded.”

On Friday, Centers reiterated that the administration's long-range plan called for closing the MHIs.

'The state will work to find private vendors to fill the space vacated by the state, similar to the companies leasing space on other campuses,” Centers said. 'There will be a focus on finding a substance abuse treatment provider to fill space at Mount Pleasant and finding an appropriate mental health provider for the space at Clarinda.”

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