I want to second the guest column written by Leslie Carpenter (“A system in crisis” Oct. 25) regarding acute and long term psychiatric health care in Iowa. I too well remember getting a phone call from a parent whose child was knocking holes in the drywall and breaking the picture window. This child had a developmental disability. I called psychiatry at UIHC and the psychiatrist told me that she had three patients waiting in the emergency room for a bed. They had been waiting for 72 hours. She could not even admit her own patients. She sounded so frustrated. All I could do was advise the mother to take her child to the local emergency room and refuse to take him home. I had many other parents crying in my office that they loved their child but were afraid of them. What kind of health care is this? Is this really the society we want to be?
Joni Bosch
Iowa City