Mental Health Region to hold meeting on Muscatine's status in region
Quad City TimesDec 18, 2019
A quarrel over fair funding for mental health services could cost
Currently,
The Region is having a special meeting Friday to decide whether
At issue is
"The problem is: We're all trying to move forward in a positive manner, try to solve the problem, but it seems that the obstacle is coming from
Beck, the vice chair for the
At Monday's meeting of the
"The reason for that ... is that we don't have the money now," Mather said. "We don't know if we're going to have it. We could very well greatly endanger our people if we make that transfer without knowing.
"So, essentially, my board has said we can't pay you now, so all we can do is wait and see, and we will pay it if we can."
Beck then reminded Mather he previously committed to paying the
Mather said it is the view of some in
"I would also ask why it gets so worked up over
"So, could we make an additional fund-balance transfer right now?" asked Farmer, who also serves as
Farmer said the Region's plan is to ask
During a presentation by Farmer on the Region's fund-flow analysis, Mather again addressed
"So,
"But the fact is this trust issue has been brewing for years, and this is the first time it's being addressed and it's being addressed because
In response, Mather said his obligation is to those who elected him in
Call to provider another point of contention
Another point of contention brought up by members of the governing board was a call Mather made to a provider in his county about the possibility of budget and/or service cuts.
After a steering committee meeting last week, Mather called
"I don't think it was right as one board member for you to call Todd and tell him we're cutting your services; you won't be getting any money from the Region," Board President
Noack, who was in the audience, said Mather had first asked him if he'd gotten a
"You told me that the services for peer support and mobile crisis are on the table to be cut, and that I would not have any notification ahead of time that my funding would stop immediately," Noack said, adding the news filled him with anxiety. "I can't believe that somebody on this governing board in my region would call me and say those things, Nathan. That was ridiculous."
In response, Mather said that the steering committee had discussed cuts last week, and that there had been pushback on the possibility of cutting telehealth services. Three other services had been talked about in that meeting: mobile crisis,
"Peer support should have as much opportunity to rally support as telehealth folks do," Mather said. "I don't know if I did anything wrong. I don't know if I violated any policy, and I don't know if any of you can say that you, as governing board members, haven't talked privately with any of your providers."
Willey and board member
"This is what's interpreted," Beck said. "This is perspective, and this is why we call a protocol where we vote on something first before we start calling our providers to discuss maybe what's going to happen."
While the board approved cuts later in the meeting, none of them were to telehealth or peer support services like Rhonda's House.
Also at Friday's meeting, the matter of
___
(c)2019 Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa
Visit Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa at http://www.qctimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.