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County officials hold off support on new mental health facility

Clinton Herald (IA) - 7/29/2015

July 29--CLINTON -- Clinton County Supervisor Shawn Hamerlinck updated the Supervisors and the public about the progress of a mental health facility for the county to use during the board's meeting on Monday.

Hamerlinck said mental health officials recently had been approached by a company trying to build a mental health hospital. The company, Strategic Behavioral Health, has plans for a 72-bed hospital in either Davenport or Des Moines.

"The facility would replace essentially Genesis Two North, which is out of the Genesis West Hospital, which deals with all mental health issues in relation to the sheriff's department or the police department in Davenport picking up an individual," Hamerlinck said. "If they're not appropriate for the jail setting they take them to the hospital, and it's a locked facility.

Genesis decided that they're no longer going to work with behavioral health and they now transport their patients to Trinity."

Hamerlinck said the discussion being held by the Des Moines City Council is "a work in progress" but said that the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf have approached the governor's board for a letter of support to send to the governor of Iowa for approval.

"Before the governor's board does that, though, they are looking for letters of support from all county sheriffs in Muscatine, Scott, Clinton, Jackson and Cedar counties, and they want a letter of support from all of the Boards of Supervisors essentially requesting the governor to approve this facility," Hamerlinck said. "They're then thinking that mental-health patients would be transferred from other counties into this facility."

Hamerlinck recommended to Supervisors Dan Srp and John Staszewski that they do not sign the letter at this time. He cited the lack of due diligence on the project and the lack of conversation with the county sheriff to see if this fits with the needs of the county. County Mental Health Coordinator Becky Eskildsen recommended against the letters of support data, something Hamerlinck agreed with.

"I support her recommendation," Hamerlinck said. "They're asking for letters of supportive data. They actually want us to send data in with a certificate of needs saying that we need such a facility to be built. It's Becky's recommendation that though we are interested in hearing from them, we have our key stakeholders from Clinton County that we need to hear from first before we sign off on such a letter."

Herald Staff Writer John Rohlf can be reached at jrohlf@clintonherald.com and on Twitter @JohnRohlfCH.

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