Mental Health Redesign Moves Forward

I believe that government has a responsibility to take care of those citizens who are not in a position to help themselves – especially when it comes to those Iowans who suffer from mental illness.

For the last several years the concerns of mental health delivery have grown to a crisis level in Iowa – especially for those families trying to work their way through a challenging system of service delivery.

The mental health delivery system is complex with streams of funding from federal, state, and county sources. The current delivery model in Iowa is coordinated by each of the 99 counties – with each county responsible to deliver a core of state mandated services along with additional services determined by the county. These additional county services are typically funded with local property tax dollars.

Until last year, the state has underfunded the state portion of the mental health system which has caused the counties to use their local support for underfunded state mandatory services. This had resulted in wait lists for residents for services that have been promised under the current delivery model.

 "...the new system will result in no Iowan ever again waiting for delivery of mental health services."

Last year the legislature provided the necessary funding to remove the wait lists for services, and started a massive reform effort of the mental health system so that Iowans can depend on consistent and equitable care – and that the new system will result in no Iowan ever again waiting for delivery of mental health services.

Legislators working on redesigning Iowa’s mental health delivery system moved closer to completion this week as the House prepared to debate the redesign bill. 

The House bill will include the creation of mental health service regions to provide local management of the system, establishment of a core set of services that would be offered in all parts of the state, and improving the data collection in the system.

A measure of success for the current legislative session will be our ability to resolve this issue so that Iowans can be confident that they will receive consistent and equitable services that will never again place those in need of mental health services in the position of waiting.

In addition to delivering a balanced budget that does not send more than we take in, I believe improving mental health services will be one of the major accomplishments of the 2012 session.