A state senator is asking that the Lieutenant Governor stop by the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute while visiting the region. Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds is planning to travel through southeast Iowa today and tour a Mount Pleasant business.

In a letter to the Lt. Governor, State Senator Rich Taylor of Mount Pleasant encouraged her to stop at the Mental Health Institute, which no longer offers treatment for acute mental illnesses following layoffs that took place in April. Taylor stated those patients have to seek treatment further away and that this worsens Iowa’s shortage of mental health care beds.

It was announced last week that legislators, including State Representative Dave Heaton, had reached an agreement with Governor Terry Branstad’s office and the Department of Human Services that allows the Mount Pleasant institute to continue offering treatment for substance abuse. According to Heaton, the agreement keeps it open and state run until December. He says after January 1st of 2016, the Department of Human Services will identify a substance abuse treatment provider in the private sector to provide mental health and substance abuse dual diagnosis services at the facility.

The Mental Health Institute was set to close by June 30th under the budget the governor released at the beginning of the session.