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The Clarinda Mental Health Institute has been spared the ax by the Iowa Department of Human Services.
But the southwest Iowa facility isn’t out of the woods yet.
On Monday, department director Charles Krogmeier recommended the closure of the mental health institute in Mount Pleasant in eastern Iowa, sparing state-run facilities in Independence, also in eastern Iowa; Cherokee, in northwest Iowa; and Clarinda.
The recommendation will be delivered to Gov. Chet Culver and Iowa legislators, who will decide whether to close one of the facilities and which facility it will be.
“We’re relieved, but it’s kind of bittersweet,” said John Greenwood, executive director of the Clarinda Economic Development Corp. “We’re glad that Clarinda has made the cut . . . But of course we’re feeling for the folks in Mount Pleasant, too.”
Closing the Mount Pleasant institute would cause the least “economic fallout” for employees and the surrounding community, Krogmeier said.
The Mount Pleasant facility has the capacity to treat about 79 patients. About 50 of those are in the facility’s substance abuse program, not in its adult psychiatric facility. Clarinda has 55 beds available to adults needing psychiatric treatment.
Under Krogmeier’s plan, patients and services from Mount Pleasant would move to the Independence facility, he said.
The Legislature ordered that the Department of Human Services recommend the closure of one of the mental health institutes.
A state task force, formed under a separate legislative action, recently recommended that all of them remain open.
Both recommendations will be considered by the Legislature, and state lawmakers could close none, one or more of the facilities.
“There’s still a long way to go here,” said Greenwood.
The Clarinda facility is part of a larger treatment complex, which includes a state prison and an academy for at-risk youth. About 100 area residents are employed at the mental health institute; about 600 people are employed at the complex in total.
Contact the writer:
444-1310, elizabeth.ahlin@owh.com
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