Psychiatrists still at mental health center

The change in psychiatric services provided to Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa by the Mason City Clinic will not affect this area’s largest provider of mental health services.

Ken Zimmerman, executive director of the Mental Health Center of North Iowa, said the center will continue to receive psychiatric services from Dr. Dale Armstrong and Dr. Mark Lassise of the Mason City Clinic.

Armstrong, who is also president of Mason City Clinic, and Lassise announced Friday they would take a leave of absence from on-call services at the hospital.

Other agencies — such as Francis Lauer Youth Services and the North Iowa Transition Center — said their relationship with Mason City Clinic would not change.

Neither Mercy or Armstrong returned calls to the Globe Gazette on Monday on the change in service to Mercy.

The announcement marked the latest chapter in the issue of psychiatrist shortages that plague not only Iowa but the entire country.

“This is a problem not unique to Mason City,” Zimmerman said.

This area, nonetheless, continues to struggle with its effects

North Iowa had five psychiatrists until a year ago but now has two.

First, longtime Mason City psychiatrist Dr. Ron Larsen gave up his psychiatric practice to take a position as Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa vice president of physician integration.

In January 2006, Dr. Michael Blackmore took early retirement for health reasons. Then Dr. Jeffrey Jackson left Mason City Clinic after 16 years.

That left Lassise as the sole psychiatrist covering patients at the Mental Health Center, although in recent weeks Armstrong has also been seeing clients there.

source:www.globegazette.com