A union leader says employees at the state-run Mental Health Institutes in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant have been told lay-off notices are going out soon and the facilities will close a few weeks before the current state budgeting year ends on June 30th. Governor Branstad says he’s “not sure about the details” of layoffs at the two institutions. “But I do know that we can’t continue to just throw money at a broken system where we don’t have accredidation and we don’t have psychiatrists,” Branstad says. “We need to devise and develop a modern system that provides the best possible mental health services that we can provide.”

Senator Mark Segebart, a Republican from Vail who used to be a Crawford County Supervisor, says he’s “not against” what Branstad envisions, but Segebart says counties aren’t ready to “make the jump” yet and provide the services that the Mental Health Institutes have provided. “All we’ve really heard all year is ‘Don’t close ’em. We don’t have another option out there to send people to,’ and if you want to get in a room with a bunch of sheriffs, you’ll find that out real quickly,” Segebart says.

County sheriffs in southern Iowa say they’re either spending far more transporting people with acute mental illness to the two Mental Health Institutes in northern Iowa that are accepting patients, or they’re putting patients in local emergency rooms until space in a hospital psych ward opens up. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal says the governor’s “unilateral approach” without consulting with legislators is a concern. “We’re listening to mental health professionals and public safety people in this state and all of the indications we’re getting from those folks is they think it’s very unwise to close critical institutions in this state without having developed a plan for treating people that currently go to those facilities,” Gronstal says. “So dumping those folks on the street, hoping for better outcomes we think is a mistake.

Danny Homan is president of AFSCME Council 61, the union that represents many of the workers at the two Mental Health Institutes that are being closed. “Before you should shut down an MHI, you should have the community infrastructure in place,” Homan says. “We do not.” Homan says the first round of layoff notices will go this Monday for employees at the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute and for employees in Clarinda the first round of layoff notices are expected April 20th. Homan says employees were told this past Tuesday that the Clarinda M-H-I will close on or before May 18th and the Mount Pleasant facility will close around June 11th.

The two state-run facilities in southern Iowa are no longer accepting patients and officials are trying to transfer those who currently are being treated in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant to private facilities.

(Radio Iowa)