Officials with the Cass County Community Foundation are reminding students that the deadline for submitting applications for the Dustin McCurdy Endowed Scholarship Fund, is March 31st. The McCurdy Scholarship provides two scholarships of approximately $500 each to high school seniors from Cumberland Anita Massena High School (C-A-M).

Applicants are asked to complete the application form and submit it with a copy of their current transcripts to their guidance counselor as directed in the scholarship’s fact sheet. Applications are available from their high school guidance counselor.

A subcommittee in the Iowa Senate has endorsed a bill that would force the two state Mental Health Institutes targeted for closure to admit patients through the end of June, but staff at the facilities in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant have been told layoff notices are coming soon. Senator Rob Hogg, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says the staff at the Mental Health Institute in Mount Pleasant told him they’ve already turned away more than three-hundred patients.

“We appropriated the money. We expected these facilities to operate for the year,” Hogg says. “And for them to be unilaterally closed is unacceptable.” Senator Mark Segebar, a Republican from Vail, says while officials have been trying to “redesign” the state’s mental health service delivery system for several years, this is not the time to “make this jump” because the beds at the two state-run Mental Health Institutes are still needed for patients.

“Sometimes they just take ’em to the ERs and leave them there for three days until they can find a bed in their own hospital,” Segebart says. “That’s terrible. It’s really a crisis.” Danny Homan is the president of AFSCME Council 61, the union which represents many of the workers at the two facilities. He says staff at the Clarinda Mental Health Institute were told on Tuesday that patients with acute mental illness will no longer be accepted there after April 1st and the last day for staff there will be on or before May 18th. According to Homan, staff at the Mount Pleasant M-H-I were told Tuesday that the first round of layoff notices would go out this Monday, February 23rd and May 31st is the target date for complete closure of the facility.

“The legislators are on the right side of this issue,” Homan says. “The governor of this state is on the wrong side of this issue.” Governor Branstad says it’s been difficult to recruit psychiatrists to work in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant and he says the two facilities are antiquated and ill-suited to modern treatment. Senator Hogg says that wasn’t his impression when he toured the M-H-I in Mount Pleasant two weeks ago. “It was built in the late ’50s and early ’60s. It’s in as good a condition as the high schools in Cedar Rapids,” Hogg says. “…Second, the staff there is working hard and most importantly the patients who we had a chance to visit with talked about how treatment they might have received in prison had failed. Treatment they may have received in the community they liked, but it wasn’t enough. They were really benefitting from being there.”

The bill that cleared a senate subcommittee early this morning (Thursday) calls on the governor to keep the institutes operating through June 30th, since the budget approved by the legislature last year allocated that money. Homan says it’s clear community services for mentally ill patients can’t handle the number of patients who would have been served at the state-run hospitals. “And the governor should sign this bill and he should stop the movement to close these facilities until the infrastructure’s in place to do what we need to do,” Homan says. “And we’re not there.”

According to Homan, staff at the Clarinda M-H-I are contacting nursing homes and trying to transfer geriatric patients who’re being treated at Clarinda for a mental illness. Homan says that’s “outrageous” since four of those geriatric patients are violent sexual predators who did time in prison for sex crimes.

(Radio Iowa)

Do you help take care of an older family member or friend? If so, you are not alone. Over 65 million family caregivers in America provide a vast array of emotional, financial, nursing, social, homemaking and other services on a daily or intermittent basis.  Powerful Tools for Caregivers is an educational series designed to provide tools you need to take care of yourself.

ISU Extension officials say if you take good care of yourself, you will be better prepared to take good care of your loved one. As a participant you will learn how to: reduce stress, improve self-confidence, better communicate your feelings, balance your life, increase ability to make tough decisions and locate helpful resources.

Iowa State University Extension is sponsoring Powerful Tools for Caregivers in cooperation with Good Samaritan Society in Red Oak in March and April. This program has been tested and evaluated through a grant from the U.S. Administration on Aging. Classes consist of six, 2 ½ hour sessions held once a week. Two experienced leaders conduct each class. Interactive lessons, discussions and brainstorming help you take the “tools” you choose and put them into action for your life.

Sessions are scheduled every Wednesday for six weeks and begins on March 18th. Classes will be held at Good Samaritan, 201 Alix Ave., Red Oak from 2:00 – 4:30 pm. A grant received from Good Samaritan defrays the participant costs. Participant books are available for use or purchase ($35). For more information or to register, contact Montgomery County Extension at 712-623-2592 before March 13th.

ISU Extension and Outreach wants to encourage young children to find opportunities in nature, and to that end, they’re offering an online class for child care providers called Early Connections to Nature & Science. The 90-minute class will emphasize children’s need for physical activity, explore nature’s benefits, and highlight free resources as well as additional learning opportunities for providers.

The class will be held on Wednesday, March 18th, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Providers may register at the Iowa Child Care Provider Training Registry, https://ccmis.dhs.state.ia.us/TrainingRegistry/. Registration and payment is required by March 11th. Registrants only need an internet connection and speakers. The online class counts as face-to-face and is highly interactive.

Sandra McKinnon, human sciences specialist with Iowa State University Extension & Outreach, says “Research tells us that spending time in nature has many positive benefits. Children who have opportunities to play and learn in nature are more likely to handle challenges and problems more capably and act responsibly toward the earth and each other. They are more physically active and less likely to be obese.”

McKinnon says “Children can play anywhere and with anything, but the natural world is an especially inviting place for play. Children play to invent, explore and try different things. Open-ended play in natural settings or with natural objects enhances curiosity and triggers the imagination.”