6-19-15 Iowa:Four elderly sex offenders who live at the state mental hospital at Clarinda will soon be transferred to another state facility before the Clarinda hospital closes, a state spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
The Iowa Department of Human Services is winding down operations at the Mental Health Institutes at Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. The controversial closure plan was disclosed in January by Gov. Terry Branstad, who contends the two state hospitals' services could be provided more efficiently in private facilities or at the state's other two mental hospitals.
One of the biggest hurdles to the plan has been the question of what to do with the four convicted sex offenders in the Clarinda hospital's unit for elderly psychiatric patients. Initially, Department of Human Services officials suggested some of the four men might be moved into private facilities, such as a nursing home. But the department then said it wouldn't allow them to be placed into a regular nursing home unit with other residents.
Department spokeswoman Amy McCoy said Friday that the four will soon be moved to the state mental hospital at Independence. She said the department still is looking for future ways to handle other such residents in a specialized private facility.
"The long-term care of elderly sex offenders who have significant mental health and medical needs has been a challenge that medical professionals, administrators and regulators, and the nursing care industry have continued to examine as Iowa's aging population increases," she wrote in an email to the Register. "Nursing facilities throughout the state regularly care for individuals who are elderly and sexually act out. This requires expertise and additional resources for supervision. We continue working with our partners in the community on addressing the needs of these individuals, and what role the state should have in providing care for individuals who have been previously convicted of violent sexual offenses."
One of the four men in question reportedly is William Cubbage, a four-time convicted sex offender who molested a 95-year-old woman in a nursing home in Pomeroy in 2011. The victim's son-in-law, Ken Rassler of Rembrandt, spoke out against any plan to return Cubbage, 86, to a private nursing home. He expressed relief Friday that Cubbage and the other elderly sex offenders were instead being transferred to the state's Independence facility. "It's definitely better to keep them in a state facility," Rassler said. "The state facility has got the trained staff to take care of them."
Branstad is considering a compromise bill legislators passed last month that calls for using part of the Clarinda facility for a small, private program to care for aggressive elderly residents. The bill also calls for re-establishment of public programs at the mental hospital at Mount Pleasant.
Branstad hasn't said whether he'll veto the proposal, but his administrators continue to take steps toward closing the two facilities.
McCoy confirmed Friday that 28 employees at the Mount Pleasant hospital and 53 at the Clarinda hospital received layoff notices Thursday. The layoffs are to take effect June 30. McCoy said the hospitals are down to a total of 23 patients. ..Source.. by Tony Leys
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