A group of Iowa Wesleyan Students have something to say about Governor Branstad’s plan to close the Mental Health Institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda: don’t.
Iowa Wesleyan Professor Lisa Kongable led a group of nursing students to the capital last week to place a petition against the closure on the governors desk containing 7,343 signatures.
“It’s a great loss to us from and educational perspective,” Kongable told KBUR, “The students were just naturally concerned because of the patients, and the affect it would have on them and their families, and they just kind of took charge.”
Kongable added, “I’m really proud of them.”
Junior nursing student Kaitlyn Dirsh started the petition. Kongable says that the closure would have a disasterous effect on mental health treatment in the state, and that if anything, the MHI facilities need to expand.
The MHI’s at Mount Pleasant and Clarinda are expected to close this summer.
