Branstad: Closing Independence mental health unit was planned, prudent

DES MOINES - The closure of a vacant 15-bed mental health unit at the state psychiatric hospital in Independence was months in the making, Gov. Terry Branstad insisted Monday.

Democratic state lawmakers and labor leaders have expressed their disappointment with the closure of the Psychiatric Medical Institution for Children unit at the Independence Mental Health Institute, announced late last week.

Branstad said Monday that the closure was made based on a recommendation by an advisory board within the state's Department of Human Services.

'The Human Services Council recommended there was not a need to continue this unit. And the Legislature did not provide any funding for it. So this was something to be expected,” Branstad said Monday during his weekly meeting with Iowa reporters.

No patients had been served in the unit since July, and the state department did not request funding for the unit this year, a department spokesman said.

The unit had been funded by a mixture of state and federal dollars.

There are more than 475 psychiatric beds for similar treatment, the department said.

'(The advisory board's) recommendation was there's not a need to continue to fund this because there are 400 beds in the non-profit and private sector that provide these same services,” Branstad said. 'When this unit was started … we didn't have those private-sector beds, those non-profit beds. What we do today, (mental health patients) are closer to home. We believe that (private and non-profit providers) can better provide the service.”

In a statement issued by statehouse Democrats, Brian Schoenjahn, a Democrat who represents Independence in the Iowa Senate, said he was 'surprised and disappointed” by the closure of the unit. Schoenjahn alleged in the statement that the unit was vacant only because the state in recent months stopped admitting patients.

'Because of Gov. Branstad's unilateral decision to close this unit of the Independence Mental Health Institute, Iowa children and their families will suffer,” Schoenjahn's statement said. 'There will be fewer options and fewer Iowa caregivers for Iowa children in need of mental health care.”

Branstad disputed the characterization of the closure as a unilateral decision, noting lawmakers did not designate funding for the unit.

He said the decision is consistent with his administration's goal of providing mental health care in private and community-based settings instead of state-run institutions. In 2015, Branstad closed state-run mental health institutions in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda.

'It's part of the overall change that's going on in a way we deliver mental health,” Branstad said Monday. 'With the mental health redesign, we're providing these services closer to home and in more settings at companies like Four Oaks and Tanager Place (both in Cedar Rapids) that do provide these services (and keeping patients) much closer to home than having to go to Independence to get this service.”