Mental health care is about control

Jerry Foxhoven, director of the Iowa Department of Human Services, says Iowa's mental health system is not failing ('Despite criticism, Iowa's mental health system ranks high,” Sept. 24), but I say it is failing the values of freedom.

Thousands of Americans have been involuntarily committed. This can't be good, as institutionalizing many people in the past was not good policy.

Creating a state-of-the-art, statewide mental health system is not about forced drugging or locked doors, but medication for those who want it.

That is why former Gov. Terry Branstad and the GOP closed two state-run mental health institutes.

We must do away with involuntary committals if we want to live up to the definition of freedom.

A new mental health hospital is being built in the Quad Cities that will house many innocent people behind locked doors who, by no fault of their own, will be deemed a nuisance by big government.

Michael Maschmann

What Cheer