CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

State DHS director addresses children's mental health during stop in Ames

Ames Tribune - 4/14/2019

April 14-- Apr. 14--Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven spoke to a room of county providers and health care professionals at The Children's Well-Being Collaborative Stakeholders Meeting at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center on Friday, delivering news on the progress of legislation that seeks to address children's mental health in Iowa.

Introduced to the Legislature by Gov. Kim Reynolds, Senate Study Bill 1197 and House Study Bill 206 seek to establish a governance structure to implement core mental health services for children and families uniformly across Iowa.

"I sat on a group about designing a children's mental health system, 33 years ago," Foxhoven said. "We met and said it's ridiculous that Iowa doesn't have a children's mental health system."

The bills also specifies core services that should be available to all children and families regardless of location, and recognize that the mental health needs of children are different than those of adults.

In addition to providing a basic structure for how decisions about children's mental health should be made and who is responsible for building Iowa's system, the bills include a process for monitoring outcomes and ensure accountability for services across the state.

Foxhoven said the method of the bill will operate on a county-base system, and provide context for Iowa's nationwide ranking in mental health services, stating that its due to its lack of a children's mental health system.

"When the non-profit ranks us eighth for mental health, our children's mental health system is not even in the top half, and that's what's dragging us down from the top five," said Foxhoven.

Iowa has received a top-10 ranking in mental health in each of the three years, which Foxhoven attributed to Iowa's focus on its adult mental health services.

Conversely, Foxhoven says that the reason Iowa ranks toward the bottom on certain lists for mental health programs is because the lack of attention for mental health in Iowa's youth.

"Mental health as we know it, if we do well in mental health, we know it's not all about in-patient, in-sight hospitals," Foxhoven said. Any kind of problems you have, whether it's mental health for kids -- it may not got worse -- but we know it can get better. But they all know if we don't do something for them now, it won't get better."

One of criticisms of the Senate bill is that it doesn't call for regular mental health screenings of Iowa children.

One mental health professional from Warren County who spoke during a question and answer session brought up how the bill doesn't include a provision for a statewide hotline to help parents find services for troubled kids.

Foxhoven said that Reynolds is committed to mental health system for Iowa children, and that once the bill is passed, it'll be "just the beginning of addressing children's mental health in the state of Iowa."

___

(c)2019 the Ames Tribune, Iowa

Visit the Ames Tribune, Iowa at www.amestrib.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.