By Kayli Reese
While groups look for ways to improve the state’s mental-health system, Iowa still has work to do when it comes to caring for individuals with mental conditions, especially during times of crisis, officials say.
Johnson County Supervisor Mike Carberry contends that the current state of mental-health care needs reform.
“Mental health is a mess in Iowa and needs to be prioritized,” he said.Carberry said Gov. Terry Branstad has closed two mental-health facilities in Iowa without having the Legislature vote on the matter, making the issue even more pressing.
Jodi Tate, a University of Iowa clinical professor of psychiatry, noted the closing of the two facilities and said there is a lack of support and money for mental-health care in the state.
Currently, Carberry said, there is $1 million in Johnson County’s budget for individuals to find mental-health care for an extended period of time.
A lack of beds in hospitals, he said, contributes to people with mental-health conditions winding up in jail or the emergency room when in need of care. The Crisis Intervention Training program for law-inforcement officers is a great move in improving care, Carberry said, but a place to take patients is a severe need.
Tate said in addition to Iowa having the lowest number of beds in the country — with patients waiting two to four days for one — there is also a significant shortage of psychiatrists throughout the state. If one wanted an appointment at the UIHC right now, she said, the first available appointment would not be until August.
In addition to these issues, Tate said, mental-health patients also stay in hospitals for much longer than they need to be, because there are no places for these individuals to go and receive care. No support or money is available for mental-health patients to move back into the communities, she said, and facilities that potentially could help often are either full or not willing to accept new patients.
Beau Pinkham, the director of crisis intervention services at the Johnson County Crisis Center, said the community is taking steps in improving mental-health care for the county. The center has a mobile crisis program to help individuals develop a safe plan for themselves, and Crisis Center employees can follow up on patients. In addition, he said, the Crisis Intervention Training will go a long way in aiding mental-health care by teaching officers what to do when confronted with an individual in a crisis.
“Statistically, police officers are usually the first responders in a crisis,” he said.
Mental health is tied with other issues the county faces, he said, including affordable housing and minimum wage, making change a complex process. The more awareness the community has about mental health, he said, the better it will be to shed light on the issue.
Tate echoed Pinkham’s view on mental health, noting that the community needs to be more aware of the problem in the mental-health-care system.
“Everybody knows somebody with a mental illness,” Tate said. “We need more empathy and a greater understanding of what [mental health] is and what it’s not.”
