(Spirit Lake)– Dickinson county supervisors this (Tues) morning heard an update from representatives of the Iowa Primary Care Association, or IPCA, which is overseeing the transformation of Iowa’s mental and behavioral health services from a regional system to a district system. The newly reorganized system has been in place about 6 months.
Supervisor Kim Wermersen expressed concern over numbers that were presented in the group’s initial report, which indicated an average of three calls per month for mental health assistance in Dickinson county. Wermersen says he knows for a fact those numbers are much higher than that, adding he’s concerned a lot of people needing help have fallen through the cracks during the transition…
“So three per month is high? Wow. Wow. I mean that’s what your numbers are showing. If that’s high, across the area, are we meeting the needs of the mental health problems that we have? They’re not going away. My concern is rural Iowa, what’s going on here? Because I heard a lot about substance abuse, I get that, that’s part of the issue, but we’ve got a whole other gamut here and it’s more than just three calls a month and if that’s a high number for you across the state, I’m just going to tell you yikes. Yikes.”
Melissa Loehr (lear) of the IPCA is the lead person for district 2, which includes northwest Iowa and Dickinson county. She says those numbers are increasing steadily and that it’s going to take some time to establish a bench line…
“It is a process that’s taking some time and we are working with navigation as well to get navigators out in the community like Marly said with outreach. And the other part that we want to do is we want to work with our partners that are here as well, including our schools. We really see that our schools and our community partners can utilize this model as we move forward. And then the other parts that we want to do is really build up that system, so working with our crisis responders, working with mobile crisis, crisis stabilization, looking at that, and then setting the standards for what that looks like as well as looking at the laws administratively, what makes sense, what doesn’t make sense. That all has to be taken into consideration as we write this script plan. As I said I’ve gone out and met with the providers, talked to many individuals as we’ve gone through. There’s been a statewide survey, there’s been lots of data collection. That will also paint the picture as far as resources that we need to devote to this.”
Loehr (lear) added that when compared on a per capita basis, the numbers in northwest Iowa are actually on par with more heavily populated areas in the state. She also is encouraging everyone to be patient, saying specific plans for each district are still being assembled.
