Iowa Legislature Public Hearings

Anonymous [Northeast Iowa Mental Health Center]

CON

Federal block grant funds really need to remain allocated to CMHC's. Our CMHC uses most of the funds to train our staff. We were the first Center to bring the WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan)concept to Iowa. This has helped hundreds if not thousands of Iowan's identify what their illness "looks like", helps them to identify when they may be backsliding and have a coping plan in place. This would not have been possible without the federal block grant funds that allowed us to send staff to Vermont to become certified WRAP facilitators. Our trained facilitators have trained many other clinical staff in Iowa to be WRAP leaders as well. Another year, we used block grant funds to train our clinicians in STEPPS, a program designed for those with borderline personality disorder. The clients attending the STEPPS program, have had amazing results. This is only a few examples of many. Without these funds we could not afford the much needed training to keep our staff trained in best practice methods which ultimately helps our clients.

Mark Oltrogge []

CON

I have attended trainings offered by our CMHC at no cost. This has given me valuable education and CEUs at no cost.Please leave the block grant alone and let local CMHCs decide the best way to use the funds.

Rebecca Loven, LMHC [Northeast Iowa Behavioral Health]

CON

This amounts to very little money per agency to the larger region, but it means a great deal to us. Our agency is run on a very tight budget, and the Block Grant funds allow us to provide required training within the agency, saving us a great deal of money, compared to having to meet the training requirements outside our agency. The Block Grant funds have also allowed our agency to provide community training in suicide prevention to hundreds of community members. There is no way to calculate the number of lives which have been saved because of this training, but the research clearly shows when this training is provided in a community, the suicide rate goes down. We know our clients very well, and we know best how to put this money to work in serving their behavioral health needs.

Bill Deutsch [Northeast Iowa Behavioral Healthy]

CON

Please continue to support us regional health centers, serving regional needs through local assessment of need and allocation of resources. We use our resources to meet the needs of our mostly rural and needful in its own way population.