(Lake Park)– Governor Kim Reynolds made a stop this (Thurs.) morning in Lake Park where she met with area law enforcement agencies. The Governor says she heard a lot from them regarding the mental health crisis and drug addiction, which she says are hand-in-hand…
“You know we have beds but we have hospitals and entities that aren’t taking them. Just trying to find some facility where maybe we can get intake, to look at what the state’s role is, to make sure that we’re incentivizing a system that will help instead of keeping them in jail, releasing, just the constant circle, you know, of the rotation of them in and out and not really getting to the heart of the issue. Just again, when we see the increase in drugs that are coming from an open border, they’re seeing an increase in that, also which ties to the mental health as well, so some of those challenges and how we deal with that. Some of the training that they’re receiving and how we can maybe provide a few more options. So I got some really good feedback on that.”
Reynolds says the issue surrounding treatment and facilities is a statewide problem…
“You know I’m continually told we have beds, and we do have beds. So that’s not wrong, it’s not a false statement. But if you have people that have beds that are saying no because they’re too acute and they don’t feel like they have the staff or they don’t have the security like at a hospital or something to deal with it, then they’re saying no. And so we’ve got to figure that out. You know, I can’t have beds and but still not having access to beds. So having beds and having access to beds and looking at that entire system is something we have to do. We’re already looking even at the mental health regions, we’re just doing an evaluation of that to make sure that we have the right number, to make sure that we’re getting the same parody of services that are being offered within each of the regions; that we have consistency, we’re not, we don’t. That just happens. That’s not unusual. But that’s not helpful, either because it’s a system and it’s a state and so we need to take a look at that as well and just how the funding is being allocated and if we could maybe do that a little differently with some of the training.”
The Governor says she feels most of the issues can be addressed without having to go through the Legislature.
Dickinson County Sheriff Greg Baloun says he feels today’s (Thurs.) meeting with the Governor was very productive. He says they feel the Governor was very receptive to their concerns and the impact the mental health crisis is having on the corrections system…
“The county jails in the state of Iowa are the biggest mental health facilities that there are and the clients that we’re dealing with, they’re more and more ill, if that’s a word. It’s getting worse for our staff to deal with all of the issues that they have.”
Baloun says another issue they addressed with the Governor is transports…
Baloun says he feels there are many efficiencies that could be gained by simply doing more networking on the state and regional levels.
