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Psych Patient Transfer Called "Inhumane"

Photo by John Pemble
Rep. David Heaton (R-Mount Pleasant)

Sheriff’s officers and other officials report a shortage of psychiatric treatment beds across the state.

A bill to help cope with the shortage cleared a three-member panel in the Iowa House.The bill directs the Department of Human Services to devise a tracking system to help locate an available bed when a patient is having a psychiatric emergency.  Mount Pleasant Republican David Heaton says a county sheriff from his community recently made 40 calls trying to find room for a patient. 

"He ended up having to take two of his deputies off staff,” Heaton says, “and place the client in the police car and travel 312 miles across the state to Sioux city.” Heaton says in some instances officers make the trip only to find that the available bed was already filled. 

“Think about the patient in the back of the car,” Heaton says, “handcuffed in the back and spending six hours.  It’s horrible it’s inhumane.” 

The DHS is already working on a monitoring system with the help of a federal grant.Heaton says the closing of the mental health facilities in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda will make the situation worse.    He says it will take time for the state’s new regional mental health systems to come up with more community placements for the mentally ill.