This facility has survived and overcome two or more budget cuts and or lass of money, over the last seven years. They have remained one of only a few facility’s still open and operating, after most of them were forced to close their doors. If they were forced to close do to the states tight budget for the mental health, the communities that are around there would have lost millions and millions of dollars from their economy. …show more content…
The Mount Pleasant, Independence and Clarinda Iowa facilities had a massive increase in patients being admitted for mental health issues, which led the state to begin the mission of opening this new institution to relief this problem in the late 1800’s. Before the patients from other facilities around the state were brought in, the first eight patients were admitted to the institute in late August.
The first superintendent, Dr. N. Nelson Voldeng, and staff took many years to prepare for the almost 700 hundred patients that the facility would house. In the early years, the staff would not only work at the facility many hours of the day but would also live in a section of the dormitories. Later, the name was changed to the Cherokee Mental Health Institute.
The facility reached its max capacity in 1945 with the total number of patients being 1,729, which left people sleeping out in the