Governor to Call on Private Group to Help Mental Hospital

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Gov. Dennis Daugaard says he'll bring in a quality assurance officer from the private group he previously directed to monitor South Dakota's state-run mental health hospital in Yankton.

Daugaard told the Argus Leader that he asked a quality assurance leader at the Children's Home Society of South Dakota to step in to work with the Human Services Center's new administrator. Daugaard previously worked as the society's executive director.

Daugaard says he hopes the move will help address problems at the center. They have included high staff turnover, a rising number of patient attacks on staff, poor record-keeping and misuse of restraints to control potentially unruly subjects.

Phyllis Arends, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Sioux Falls, says she supports the governor's move.

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