Orange City, Iowa — While he thinks the games of “musical chairs” are about finished — at least after July first — for northwest Iowa counties and their mental health regions, Shane Walter says other challenges will continue to be an issue.
Walter is the CEO of Sioux Rivers Regional Mental Health and Disabilities Services. He tells us that they are still looking for a central location for their access center. Plus there are other issues.
(as said) “We’re all scrambling to try to meet the new mandates — one of which is the access center. All regions are obligated to have an access center either within their region or within a hundred twenty miles of all of the region itself. So anyone living within the region has to be within a hundred twenty miles of that access center. The same would apply for all of the new mandated services which include intensive residential services homes. Assertive community treatment services, mobile crisis, Children’s services, of course, will be assumed… responsibilities will be assumed by the regions as of July 1 as well.”
Walter says the organizing of how to provide services for children is also a big concern.
(as said) “Each region has had to appoint a children’s behavioral health coordinator to help to coordinate services. And those services would include prevention, would include crisis, residential…. So we’re all working to make certain we can provide those services within the region. So that’s a huge challenge… maybe one of the biggest challenges that we have before us because the state had responsibility for that and still does up until July. But come July that’s on us. So we’re working hard to get that worked out with the other mandates.”
Walter says as with many other things in life — money — or the lack thereof — is also a big issue.
(as said) “And we’re still hoping the legislature settles on a sustainable funding mechanism for us because right now we’re relying on the county levies that have been literally capped since 1996. So we’re trying to do a whole lot more with the same exact dollars we had available 25 years ago. Doesn’t work very well. So the state has got to come up with some money somewhere so that we can continue to build and then sustain these services. It isn’t so much about building the services. It’s… sustaining those services because we can’t expect providers to step up to the plate to work with us if we can’t guarantee that there’ll be funding ongoing and that’s the biggest challenge for this region and quite frankly every region in the state.”
Walter says Sioux Rivers is still thinking that Sheldon may be a good location for its access center, but those decisions have not yet been made.
