On the 6th Day of Decline, the Iowa GOP Gave Us… Limited Access to Mental Health Care
DES MOINES, IA – On the sixth day of Christmas, Iowans didn’t receive six geese-a-laying. Instead, Republicans gifted them yet another ranking that puts Iowa last in the nation.
This time, the low ranking is for the number of psychiatric beds available in the state.
An estimated 84,000 Iowans are living with severe mental illness, yet the state had just 64 state-managed inpatient beds to treat adults in 2023. That’s two beds per 100,000 residents. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, 50 beds per 100,000 people are required to provide “minimally adequate treatment.”
For children, the numbers are just as bad. There are only a few dozen inpatient psychiatric beds for children and adolescents. Data show the need for children’s beds is much larger. In 2023, 63,000 Iowa youth received behavioral health services from the state.
Things are so bleak that Iowa parents are giving up custody of their children to get them the mental health help they need.
“A parent shouldn’t have to lose custody for their kid to get care,” Nina Ritchman, a parent from Des Moines told the Des Moines Register. “There needs to be another way for kids that have complex needs, and right now it’s this. This is the only option for families like mine, and it’s a really complicated, really expensive option for the state, and it’s not even meeting the kids’ needs.”
Iowa’s mental health care system is lagging in several areas. The state is also consistently ranked among the last in the nation for the number of psychiatrists per capita, mental health care providers, and mental health workforce availability.
Families are being left waiting, law enforcement is stretched thin, and people aren’t getting the care they need when they need it.
This December, instead of French hens and golden rings, we’re counting down the 12 Days of Iowa’s decline — a daily look at the rankings Iowa has tanked under a decade of one-party rule. Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 7.
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