Iowa mental health care review pending, but no criteria yet

  No set criteria exist yet to gauge whether or not a redesign of how Iowa delivers mental health treatment, which included the controversial closing of two mental health institutes June 30, will be as beneficial to Iowans as hoped, Gov. Terry Branstad said in an IowaWatch interview.
  Branstad said he will continue to review a four-year plan for re-designing how Iowa provides mental health care. The redesign plan, implemented in 2012, is to bring mental health care services from being delivered at the county level to being delivered in a regional level containing multiple counties. Fifteen mental health regions exist in Iowa. The County Social Services region includes Butler County and nearby Floyd, Chickasaw, Black Hawk, Grundy and Cerro Gordo counties, among others.
  Hear from local legislators on the matter in the full story in the July 23 Butler County Tribune-Journal and Clarksville Star.  Editor Mira Schmitt-Cash contributed. The story was produced by Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch.org, a non-profit, online news Website that collaborates with Iowa news organizations to produce explanatory and investigative reporting.