MHC Services

Assessment services are designed to assist the individual in better understanding personal functioning by focusing on issues of how the person lives, learns, works, socializes and handles personal functioning.

An initial clinical assessment is routinely included as part of services. The consumer is actively engaged in discussing their reasons for referral and presenting issues. The initial assessment normally lasts between an hour to an hour and a half. Usually people are asked to come a half hour early for orientation to services and to secure informed consent for services.

The goal of the initial assessment is to arrive at observations and recommendations that may assist the consumer in developing responses to their presenting issues. Sometimes that may result in the recommendation for additional assessment. The Center provides a range of additional assessment services for this purpose. Assessments are scheduled to assist with referring questions or issues.

Based on those issues, different types of assessments are arranged:

Clinical Assessment	This type of assessment focuses on an interactive visit between the consumer and clinician to arrive at a better understanding of symptoms and issues, as well as to develop recommendations. A clinical assessment usually engages the consumer in an individual visit.	Top of Page
Family Assessment	A type of clinical assessment that engages the family in exploring the referred issue/s promoting understanding of those issues and for developing recommendations.	Top of Page
Psychiatric Assessment	A scheduled assessment with a psychiatrist who conducts a psychiatric evaluation often for diagnosis, consideration of medication, or assessment of a specific area of personal functioning, or where the issues may also involve medical factors.	Top of Page
Medication Management	A scheduled visit with a psychiatrist or visits also assisted by a psychiatric nurse working with the psychiatrist. Such assessments are arranged specifically around the use of prescribed medications.	Top of Page
Psychological Assessment	A scheduled assessment with a psychologist trained in the use of testing. This type of assessment will likely involve the consumer in the participation through formal testing tools in the interview and at times with paper and pencil.	Top of Page
Functional Assessment	An type of assessment that focuses on how the individual is able to carry out daily living with an emphasis on living, learning, working and socializing. This type of assessment helps to clarify service planning and setting goals especially when the consumer has serious and persistent impairments.	Top of Page
Emergency Assessment	An assessment using crisis intervention that is designed to assist in assessing immediate needs and actions while also helping the consumer assess for various types of risk .	Top of Page

Treatment Services

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The Center provides a range of out patient treatment drawing extensively upon a variety of established and clinically based treatment approaches that assist in addressing change with feelings, cognition, and behavior. The Center does not embrace a single treatment approach and rather links appropriate treatment approaches to the consumer and the consumer’s defined concerns. Treatment is based on the philosophy of advancing the consumers personal empowerment. Consumers are actively engaged in developing goals relevant to their expressed desired outcome in treatment.

The Center does require the consumer’s formal and informed consent to participate in treatment. When children and adolescents are referred, this must come from their parents or the responsible party having legal guardianship. It is important that parent support their child’s treatment and may be asked to participate in visits as well.

There are over 300 different types of treatment modalities established in practice. This review summarizes the types of treatment most likely to be experienced by most consumers when a recommendation for treatment is made.

The consumers consent to participate in treatment is needed to implement services. So too is the agreement for funding those services. This may involve a third party such as an insurance or managed Care Company that imposes conditions on treatment such as number of visits, etc. The Center does maintain a managed care department to assist in coordinating this with the consumer.

Individual Treatment	Scheduled visits with the consumer to address personal issues. These visits may also be scheduled to include spouse, family member or friend as relevant to the consumer’s needs and the issues being addressed.	Top of Page
Family Treatment	Visit or visits where the individual’s concerns are addressed through the family being seen together for one or more visits.	Top of Page
Group Treatment	Visits conducted where two or more people meet on a regular basis to address personal issues that can benefit from engagement with others having related or similar issues. Groups are lead by a therapist and differ based on the purpose of the group: some being more talk therapy based while others taking the format of being more psycho-educational such in parenting.	Top of Page
Brief Treatment	Short term episode based involvement around presenting issues. Brief treatment seeks to facilitate change in visits from 1 to 10 visits often over a time span of several months.	Top of Page
On-going Treatment	Visits are scheduled to assist with personal functioning that may assist with an episode of concern but continues beyond that initial concern to address patterns in personal functioning that are on-going in nature.	Top of Page
24 Hour Emergency Services Intervention	The Center does have emergency services and maintains an inter-disciplinary staff trained in emergency and crisis intervention. During the daytime hours, the Center can respond both by phone and in person through its main location in Mason City . After working hours, the Center maintains an advanced trained clinician who is available through our answering service and who can assist in providing assessment and immediate intervention at the time the consumer calls.	Top of Page
Person Centered Planning	The Mental Health Center of North Iowa provides a set of person centered services that can be used across many settings by really all age groups..... Family Conferencing - The Mental Health Center of North Iowa is available to provide a range of different types of family group, family team conference that are sometimes referred to as Family Unity and Family Team Decision Making conferences. Though a bit different form one another they serve as very useful ways to bring the person, family, natural supports and system providers together to make person centered achievable plans for the future. WRAP - Wellness recovery Action Planning (WRAP) was developed by Mary Ellen Copeland. Interested parties develop their own personal WRAP plan that can be used across settings. Mediation - Mediation is a service to assist in discussing and resolving disputes. mediation uses an experienced and impartial mental health professional who guides a facilitation of the issues with the interested parties.	Top of Page

Consultation	A mental health service that can be provided to other organizations to assist in responding to mental health needs of those they serve. Consultation may also be extended to individuals who are not registered as a client at the Center for the purpose of assisting in a similar manner. The Center does offer case oriented, program oriented types of consultation.	Top of Page
Community Planning	A service using planning as a basis to assist in addressing the mental health needs of individuals and is useful especially in promoting healthy functioning, prevention and timely interventions approaches to groups or defined population.	Top of Page
Case Collaboration	The Center recognizes that effective treatment means communication and involvement of our staff with others involved with the consumer. Case collaboration is a service designed for this purpose. The Center uses the consumer’s informed consent and a formal written consent form to implement such a service.	Top of Page
Mental Health Education	A mental health service that draws on mental health information and applies it in an educational manner in a non therapy relationship with interested individuals. Examples include visits, talks, presentations, groups that are conducted around a mental health topic.	Top of Page
Supported Community Living	A defined service in Iowa that provides for enhancing the consumers role functioning in an area of how they live, learn, work, or socialize with an emphasis on living in the community. Supported community living provides assistance with skills in independent living, supportive contacts to sustain skills in educational and work settings. Services are conducted in the natural settings for the consumer.	Top of Page
Community Support	A community based mental health service that balances support and maximizing personal independence. Offered in the community in natural settings for the consumer, this service provides support for self sufficiency, community integration and symptom management.	Top of Page
Referral	As part of all service elements, The Center can assist with referral to other providers and assist with the coordination of services. The consumer’s informed written consent will be sought when information from the Center is needed as part of a referral to another organization. A managed care department is maintained by the Center to also assist with managed care issues that the consumer may experience.	Top of Page
Adult Rehabilitation Service or ARO	The Center is a provider of this is a newly implemented service in Iowa that draws on community based services to help consumers recover and enhance skills.	Top of Page
Disaster Team	The Center has staff trained in responding to disasters of a natural as well as man made nature. This service is available through	Top of Page

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Assessments
Clinical	Family	Psychiatric
Psychological	Functional	Emergency
	Medication Management

Treatment Services
Individual	Family	Group
Brief	On-going	24 Hour Emergency Intervention
	Person Centered Planning

Community Services
Consultation	Community Planning	Case Collaboration
Mental Health Education	Supported Community Living	Community Support
Referral	Adult Rehab or ARO	Disaster Team

Community Services	Top of Page
The Mental Health Center of North Iowa also provides a range of community services that are of a direct and indirect nature. The community services represent a category or type of service, each having a variety of approaches and applications. They are provided to strengthen and enhance the mental health of individuals, groups and communities.