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Iowans give ‘idiot’ the ax Stephen Trefz works with between 1,500 and 2,000 mentally disabled patients every year, and he doesn’t look at them as idiots — they’re people. That’s why the director of Iowa City’s Community Mental Health Center was elated when a ballot measure appeared to have passed late Tuesday night that will amend the Iowa Constitution to describe someone who can’t vote because of mental disabilities as “a person adjudged mentally incompetent to vote,” rather than an “idiot or insane person.” As of late Tuesday night, the Associated Press reported the measure appeared to have passed in a 4-to-1 margin with 63 percent of Iowa precincts reporting. It required a majority to pass. “It was a very unfortunate thing that the word was still in use and contributing to folks not feeling the stigma of mental illness,” Trefz said. “People with mental illnesses aren’t flawed or anything less than a person with high-blood pressure.” The decision has been 11 years coming in Iowa. In 1997, Rep. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, and former Rep. Betty Grundberg proposed the amendment. Through all that time, Trefz said, he never became discouraged that the measure didn’t pass. Across the nation, approximately 6 percent — 1 in 17 people — suffer from a serious mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the United States and Canada for people between 15 and 44. In fiscal 2008, the Johnson County Mental Health and Disabilities Service treated 1,780 mentally disabled people, who had disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Director Kristen Artley said. “We have a Code of Iowa written many years ago, and I believe this initiative is bringing us into the next century of it — seeing all people as equal human beings,” she said. Being called an “idiot” is a derogatory term in today’s world, and with such a label, people sometimes automatically assume that a mentally disabled person can’t vote even if he or she can, said Terry Cummingham, a member of the Johnson County Mental Health and Disabilities Service’s planning council. “It’s sad when these people have to prove they can do things, whereas ‘non-idiots’ have to prove they can’t perform tasks such as voting,” Cummingham said. |