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Local services, state law discussed at mental health forum

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS Dr. Douglas Steenblock, right, discusses Iowa’s 2018 mental health law at Thursday’s forum. Also pictured are Center Associates Executive Director Paul Daniel, left, and state Rep. Mark Smith, middle.

Three local mental health professionals held a forum Thursday to discuss a 2018 state law aimed at improving access to care across Iowa, as well as what services exist in the Marshalltown area.

Rep. Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown, a licensed independent social worker, was joined by Dr. Douglas Steenblock and Center Associates Executive Director Paul Daniel at the forum at Fisher Community Center Thursday evening.

“I’m really concerned about the shortage of providers,” Steenblock said.

He said professionals like psychiatrists, psychologists and others are hard to come by in Iowa, especially in rural areas. Another challenge to mental health care in the state is long wait times for initial appointments, as is a shortage of beds for people going through major mental health crises.

Steenblock said the local emergency room, along with others in the state, sees a lot of visitors in mental health crisis who may be better served by other means. He said such cases are overloading ERs and said the inflow of new mental health patients is higher than the outflow of patients from hospital beds.

A new mental health state law passed the state legislature unanimously and was signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds last year. Steenblock said the law is meant to reduce roadblocks to people getting needed mental health treatment.

Smith said the new law was given $876,000 in state funding but said more money, about $6 million, will be needed as programming is put in place. Such programming includes increasing the number of mental health facilities, transportation services, distance treatment services provided through digital mediums and more.

“Iowa is very unique in the delivery of mental health services in that we are a hybrid of monies that come from property taxes that property owners pay and money that comes from the state government that comes into the state through the income taxes,” Smith said.

That combined money goes to the state’s mental health regions. Marshall County belongs to the Central Iowa Community Services (CICS) region, which includes Jasper, Story and Hardin counties, among others.

Daniel said there are some important services currently available in Marshall County to improve mental health care access, including the Mobile Crisis Response unit. The unit is meant to help people deal with mental health crises while taking some strain off other professionals, such as ER staff or law enforcement. A person with mental health concerns can call the unit hotline and have mental health care workers come to their location within an hour.

Daniel also talked about the Transitional Living Center in Marshalltown, which offers a place for mental health patients to stay for up to 90 days if they have nowhere else to go.

“We want them to get out and function independently,” he said. “We’ve had 11 graduates from our program.”

Daniel said participants in transitional living are there for an average of 65 days, but said some participants do not stay in the program. If someone needs support after transitional living, he said the Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation program at Central Iowa Recovery is also available to help patients.

Other local programs include the Warm Line and Peer Drop-in programs, which give mental health patients people to talk to about their concerns, offering a “listening ear.”

Smith said any improvements to Iowa’s mental health system will require more people to enter careers in mental health care, including psychiatrists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, social workers and others. He said he is introducing a bill this year to help.

“It will call for putting more money into the Department of Public Health to provide a training incentive to all of the people in the areas I mentioned,” Smith said.

The bill will also look to give parents more accessibility to information on their child’s mental health condition, and to expand mental health services at public schools. Smith cited Marshalltown Schools’ partnership with Center Associates as an example of such a service.

However, he and Daniel said more professionals are needed for school mental health services, too.

Daniel said the issues surrounding mental health care in Iowa will persist in coming years. He said about a quarter of all people and two-fifths of children will suffer from a mental health issue at some point.

“Mental health isn’t going anywhere, it’s here to stay,” Daniel said. “We need action.”

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Contact Adam Sodders at

(641) 753-6611 or

asodders@timesrepublican.com

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