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County Officials Hoping For Smooth Transition With Mental Health Services

March 05, 2025 Steve Schwaller

(Spirit Lake)– A re-vamp of how mental health services are administered to low-income residents in Iowa takes affect this coming July 1st. The state will be taking on those services at that point, in place of counties and the regional system that’s currently in place. Supervisor Kim Wermersen represents Dickinson county which is part of the Sioux Rivers Mental Health Region. He says there’s a lot that needs to be done yet between now and then to make the transition happen…

“It’s a period where we have to determine when do we shut off, because we’re still doing business in June. We have to collect and pay those particular things and so at what period do we go? We’re trying to do July 31st. But our real concerns are inpatient hospital mental health patients which we have two now. The state is saying right now if they go in prior to July 1st, anytime after that, and that could be a long period of time, we have to hang until that is done. The challenge with that is the state takes over July 1st with services but they’re holding out on the regions for this. So we’re working diligently to come up with a plan for that.”

Wermersen says their goal is to make the transition to the new system as smooth as possible but he says it’s going to be a challenge. Wermersen gave the update during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

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