Black Hawk Grundy Mental Health Center

Outpatient Services: available for children, adolescents, adults, couples and families who need guidance, counseling or medication to cope with various problems in life. These services are provided in the office setting by staff members who meet state standards as Qualified Mental Health Professional (Master's Degree plus 2 years supervised experience) or a Master's level student for an accredited educational program who is supervised weekly. A brief therapy approach is practiced by all staff providing outpatient services.

Evalutation Services:

Emergency Services: are available 24 hours a day through the Center's telephone number for persons who find themselves in crisis situations. There is a licensed mental health professional and physician on-call at all times. Initiated in the mid-1970's, we implemented an 800 number in 1993 for those needing to reach us who live outside the metropolitan area.

Consultation and Education Services: are designed to assist individuals, groups, agencies, organizations and the general community with mental health related issues. We receive many requests to speak about the Center, mental health problems, etc. as well as requests for consultations.

Outreach Services: are designed to prevent or reduce hospitalizations of individuals with a serious and persistent mental illness. The services included are home visits, medication monitoring, daily living skills training, etc. This program began in 1988 with the closing of Black Hawk County's only residential care facility.

School Based Mental Health Services : provides onsite mental health evaluation, short term treatment and information and referral services to at-risk students at any school in Black Hawk or Grundy County. This program began in 1994 as a pilot project but has grown immensely over the years.

Mental Health Services to the Homeless: through federal funding (passed down to the Iowa Department of Human Services) from the original Stewart B. McKinney health services to homeless individuals with mental health problems since 1988. The goals of the service are to identify, treat and coordinate services to homeless individuals within the community.

Prolixin-Haldol Clinic: in the mid-1970's, the Center began using injectable medications for those clients with a serious and persistent mental illness who had a history of multiple hospitalizations primary due to medication non-compliance. This program has improved medication compliance and has reduced the "revolving door" at the State hospital, and local mental health units, for many clients.

Mental Health Services to the Elderly: for the last 15 years, we have participated in the Hawkeye Valley Area Agency on Aging Case Management Program in Black Hawk and Grundy Counties. We provide in-home mental health evaluation and treatment services to elderly individuals as part of this program.

Dual Diagnosis Program for Men: through a collaborative effort with the Department of Correctional Services and Pathways Behavioral Services and funding from the Department of Correctional Services, we provide mental health treatment to individuals with a co-occurring disorder who are involved with the legal system at the Dual Diagnosis Program at the Department of Correctional Service Residential Facility.

This is a new program in 2009 that offers individuals with mental health problems an opportunity to participate in treatment in order to avoid criminal sanctions.  A collaboration between the Iowa District Court, First Judical Department of Correctional Services, the Iowa State Public Defenders Office and the Black Hawk County Attorney's Office.

Telephone Triage and Medication Management: registered nurses provide a wide range of services to clients, family members, agency representatives and the community through telephone triage activities. These services include fielding calls about medications, crisis management, renewal of medications with pharmacies, applying to patent assistance programs available through the pharmaceutical companies, monitoring patient assistance medication supplies, patient education, supervision of sample medication supplies, information and referral services and others.

Professional Educational Training Programs: For many years, the Center has provided educational experiences to those enrolled in higher education programs, These experiences have ranged from brief encounters with the Mental Health Center to obtain information to structured placements or internships lasting several months. Over the years, the Center has had students from the University of Northern Iowa, Wartburg, St. Ambrose College, the University of Iowa, Des Moines Osteopathic School, Upper Iowa, Allen College of Nursing, Luther College and others.