Muscatine County may have a community mental center if approved by the State of Iowa.
The Robert Young Center in the City of Muscatine asked for a letter of support from the Muscatine County Supervisors, which was on the agenda for their meeting Monday, June 19.
Community Services Director Felicia Toppert said one of her goals when she accepted her position was to make an effort to get a community mental health center in Muscatine.
“We’re big enough,” Toppert said. “We have the population for it and so that’s what I’ve been working on for the past four years.”
Now, the county can issue a letter of support to the Robert Young Center to become a mental health center, she said. Muscatine County would become its biggest client.
The Robert Young Center has provided services to Muscatine County for a while and has qualified to receive federal money to provide mental health services.
Supervisor Danny Chick asked Toppert if the Robert Young Center would be looking for a new facility if they receive more funding. Toppert said she hasn’t heard anything from anyone there about needing a new facility. The current location at 1616 Cedar Street in Muscatine has enough space for the services they currently provide.
If the application is approved, more outpatient services would become available, Toppert said. More prescribers would hopefully join the staff because the wait currently to get into a prescriber is between September and November.
“If somebody feels like they’re really depressed they’re going to have to wait a while to see a prescriber,” Toppert said. “The region is putting in bridge appointments starting July 1 and if they have a case manager they’ll (patients) will be able to go to those bridge appointments. Muscatine should have about four hours a week for those bridge appointments.”
This will allow medication to be prescribed immediately to patients until they see their normal care provider, she added.
Supervisor Nathan Mather said the work the Robert Young Center provided is great work. He asked Toppert how the residential mental health facility was coming along. Toppert said she thought the three-story facility was still on track to open with services available in the building to residents.
Mather asked Toppert when they would know about the application. Toppert said the application has to be discussed first but thought it would go relatively quickly.
Supervisor Jeff Sorensen said the state mental health board would review the application, hold a public hearing and then have other mental health providers approve or reject the application.
The supervisors approved the request from Toppert for a letter of support for the Robert Young Center application to become a community mental health center in Iowa.