Legislators push to keep mental health facilities open

DES MOINES - State lawmakers are trying to convince Gov. Terry Branstad to keep mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda open through June 30 but a state union official said Thursday steps already are being taken to lay off employees and shut down operations.

Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 61, told a Senate subcommittee that Branstad officials are 'already in shutdown mode” with plans calling for layoff notices at the Mount Pleasant MHI to go out on Monday for workers who will be terminated March 30. Another round of layoff notices would begin May 4 with the last day of work June 11, he said.

Likewise, Homan said the Clarinda MHI administrator told employees this week that tentatively layoffs were slated to begin April 20. He said timelines call for acute admissions to stop at Clarinda on April 1, while the last admissions at Mount Pleasant will be May 1.

Homan and several legislators challenged the legal authority of the governor and state Department of Human Services (DHS) to 'act unilaterally” in closing facilities without legislative involvement that have been funded through June 30. The Senate panel on a 3-0 bipartisan vote approved a bill (Senate File 140) directing DHS officials to accept all eligible patients to Iowa's four MHIs through June 30.

'I believe the legislators are on the right side of this issue. The governor of this state is on the wrong side of this issue,” Homan said.

'The governor should stop the movement to close these facilities until the infrastructure is in place to do what we need to do and we're not there,” the state employees' union leader added. 'We're reviewing what our legal options are to stop this.”

Branstad told reporters Thursday that the MHIs at Clarinda and Mount Pleasant will stay open through June 30 and he pledged the focus would be on finding the best services possible for mental health patients who normally would be housed at the state's four mental health institutes. He said he hoped to make a 'smooth transition” to a modernized network of mental health services through the state's redesigned regional delivery network.

'We want to make sure that we have a redesign that meets the needs of Iowans in the future, not something that was put together in the 1880s,” he said. 'I do know we that we can't continue to just throw money at a broken system.”

Subcommittee member Sen. Mark Segebart, R-Vail, a former Crawford County supervisor, said he believed county officials have making strides in expanding mental-health programs under new regional format but added 'I don't believe they're ready to make the jump” in providing care alternatives to the state institutions.

'All we've really heard all year is don't close them. We don't have another option out there to send people to. If you want to get into a room with sheriffs, you'll find out real quickly,” added Segebart, who described the current situation as 'a crisis.”

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said hospitals, health care professionals and others have told legislators 'it is very unwise to close critical institutions in this state without having developed a plan. We think it's a mistake.”

Sen. Rich Taylor, D-Mount Pleasant, invited the governor to tour the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute he is seeking to shut down and asked Branstad in the meantime to 'cease all layoff notices for the hard-working employees of the MHI” until he has visited the facility.

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