Plan for state experts to advise other facilities on care for Iowans with disabilities

(story provided by Radio Iowa)

An administrator from the now-closed Glenwood Resource Center is transferring to a role at the state-run facility in Woodward that cares for Iowans with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Two federal investigations raised concerns about how residents with serious disabilities at Glenwood were being cared for and the home was closed last month. Iowa Department of Health and Human Services director Kelly Garcia says the person she hired to stabilize medical care at Glenwood is transferring to the Woodward Resource Center.

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Garcia says the goal of the center is to have some Woodward staff help direct care providers elsewhere figure out what works best for a patient with high needs.

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Woodward, like Glenwood, has provided intensive services for Iowans with profound disabilities for more than a century. Garcia says the Woodward patients are not permanent residents, as was the practice at Glenwood.

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Garcia says the Woodward Resource Center is centrally located and her plan is for it to be a hub of expertise for private or non-profit facilities that care for Iowans with

disabilities.