GOP lawmaker asking Branstad to reconsider Mental Health Institute closings

DES MOINES - A leading mental health advocate in the Iowa House received a standing ovation from colleagues after he blasted Gov. Terry Branstad for moving ahead to close two mental health institutes without working with the Legislature.

'He promised me that he would work with the Legislature on this issue,” Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, said in a speech Tuesday on the House floor. 'Has that happened? I think last Thursday's announcement gives you the answer.”

Last Thursday 36 employees of the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute received 'pink slips” and were told they would lose their jobs April 6.

Branstad did not budget funding to operate the state mental health institutes in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant after June 30, a move he said would save $10 million.

Branstad said the decision was made on the recommendation of the Department of Human Services 'because it will mean better, more modern mental health care for Iowa patients,” according to his spokesman.

'Is the governor an expert on mental health?” Heaton said after a 12-minute point of personal privilege before adjournment. 'I don't think so.”

Heaton agrees with the governor that changes must be made in how mental health services are delivered. However, he said, Branstad's plans to close Clarinda and Mount Pleasant threaten progress the Legislature has made in recent years to redesign how mental health services are delivered.

Branstad spokesman Jimmy Centers said the governor continues to work with the Legislature on 'providing a more modern mental health care system rather than a system designed for the 1800s.”

The pink slips say different, according to Heaton. Keeping the institutes open 'is at the core of everything we are trying to do,” he said.

Heaton, who chairs the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, hopes to use the legislative budget process to find a way to keep the institutes open until community-based services are available.

'If he needs money, I can find the money for these two,” he said. 'I can keep them open.

'I'm asking him to reconsider,” Heaton said. 'But he's got a veto pen.”