Iowa · statute · Iowa Code ch. 226 · 36 active provisions
1. The state hospitals for persons with mental illness shall be designated as follows: a. Mental Health Institute, Independence, Iowa. b. Mental Health Institute, Cherokee, Iowa. 2. a. The purpose of the mental health institutes is to operate as regional resource centers providing one or more of the following: 1. Treat…
The superintendent of each institute must be qualified by experience and training in the administration of human service programs. A physician shall not serve as both superintendent and business manager. A hospital administrator or other person qualified in business management appointed superintendent may also be desig…
The assistant physicians shall be of such character and qualifications as to be able to perform the ordinary duties of the superintendent during the superintendent’s absence or inability to act.
The salary of the superintendent of each mental health institute shall be determined by the director.
The superintendents and assistant physicians of the mental health institutes, when called as witnesses in any court, shall be paid the same mileage which other witnesses are paid and in addition shall be paid a fee of twenty-five dollars per day, the fee to revert to the support fund of the mental health institute the…
The superintendent shall: 1. Have the control of the medical, mental, moral, and dietetic treatment of the patients in the superintendent’s custody subject to the approval of the director. 2. Require all subordinate officers and employees to perform their respective duties. 3. Have an official seal with the name of the…
1. a. Preference in the reception of patients into the mental health institutes shall be exercised in the following order: 1. Cases of less duration than one year. 2. Chronic cases, where the disease is of more than one-year duration, presenting the most favorable prospect for recovery. 3. Those for whom application ha…
1. Admission or transfer pursuant to section 222.7 to a state mental health institute of a person with a diagnosis of an intellectual disability, as defined in section 4.1, shall only occur under the following conditions: a. If all of the following requirements are met: 1. The person has been determined by the state me…
The superintendent, upon the receipt of a duly executed order of admission of a patient into a state mental health institute, pursuant to section 229.13, shall take the patient into custody and restrain the patient as provided by law and the rules of the department, without liability on the part of such superintendent…
Effective January 1, 1991, a juvenile who is committed to a state mental health institute shall not be placed in a secure ward with adults.
1. The psychiatric medical institution for children beds operated by the state at the state mental health institute at Independence, as authorized in section 135H.6, shall operate on the basis of a net appropriation from the general fund of the state. The allocation made by the department from the annual appropriation…
The patients of the state mental health institutes, according to their different conditions of mind and body, and their respective needs, shall be provided for and treated with equal care. If in addition to mental illness a patient has a co-occurring intellectual disability, brain injury, or substance use disorder, the…
Patients may have such special care as agreed upon with the superintendent, if the friends or relatives of the patient will pay the expense of the special care. Charges for such special care and attendance shall be paid quarterly in advance.
The director shall assure that the superintendent of each institute provides monthly reports concerning the programmatic, environmental, and fiscal condition of the mental health institute. The director or the director’s designee shall periodically visit each institute to validate the information.
The name and address of the director shall be posted in every ward in each mental health institute. Every patient shall be allowed to write once a week what the patient pleases to the director and to any other person. The superintendent may send letters addressed to other parties to the director for inspection before f…
Every patient shall be furnished by the superintendent or party having charge of the patient, at least once each week, with suitable materials for writing, enclosing, sealing, and mailing letters, if the patient requests and uses the materials.
The superintendent or other officer in charge of a patient shall, without reading the letters, receive all letters addressed to the director, if so requested, and shall properly mail the letters, and deliver to such patient all letters or other writings addressed to the patient. Letters written to the patient may be ex…
The superintendent and all other officers and employees of any mental health institute, in case of the unauthorized departure of any involuntarily hospitalized patient, shall exercise all due diligence to take into protective custody and return the patient to the mental health institute. A notification by the superinte…
All actual and necessary expenses incurred in the taking into protective custody, restraint, and return to the mental health institute of the patient shall be paid on itemized vouchers, sworn to by the claimants and approved by the director or the director’s designee, from any moneys in the state treasury not otherwise…
The director may investigate the mental condition of any patient and shall discharge any person, if, in the director’s opinion, the person is not mentally ill, or can be cared for after discharge without danger to others, and with benefit to the patient. In determining whether the patient shall be discharged, the recom…
1. Every patient shall be discharged in accordance with the procedure prescribed in section 229.3 or section 229.16, whichever is applicable, immediately on regaining the patient’s good mental health. 2. If a patient’s care is the financial responsibility of the state or a county, as part of the patient’s discharge pla…
Upon discharge, the department shall furnish the person discharged, unless otherwise supplied, with suitable clothing and a sum of money not exceeding twenty dollars, which shall be charged with the other expenses of the patient in the mental health institute.
Upon the recommendation of the superintendent and in accordance with section 229.15, subsection 5, in the case of an involuntary patient, the director may place the patient on convalescent leave for a period not to exceed one year, under conditions prescribed by the director.
The director, on the recommendation of the superintendent, and on the application of the relatives or friends of a patient who is not cured and who cannot be safely allowed to go at liberty, may release the patient when fully satisfied that the relatives or friends will provide and maintain all necessary supervision, c…
If a patient was committed to a mental health institute for evaluation or treatment under chapter 812 or the rules of criminal procedure, further proceedings shall be had under chapter 812 or the applicable rule when the evaluation has been completed or the patient has regained mental capacity, as the case may be.