MUSCATINE, Iowa - On Monday night, the board of supervisors will begin holding study meetings on whether programs within the county's programmed services department should be privatized. Those meetings will be held at Muscatine City Hall and will be televised on the local cable channel.

Several comments from consumers of mental health and developmental disabilities services have been heard during the board meetings since the topic was raised.

Monday was no different.

Betty Marsh told the board the county has a "very effective system that works."

"It has had a impact on my life and the lives of my children and those around us," said Betty Marsh.

She said she was nearing permanent hospitalization before receiving assistance from programmed services.

She said three years ago she couldn't function on her own on a daily level and was forced to give up guardianship of her 10-year-old daughter.

"County support helped me learn to function and get my child back," Marsh said. "I've had my child back for 21/2

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years and she is a confident 14-year-old. Now I'm married and live in my own three-bedroom house. It was only possible because I got the mental health services."

Marsh invited the board to visit her home the CoOp Place, a rehabilitation day program, and meet her social worker.

She said the county's services could "give another mother a chance to get well."

Anna Maria Cavazos told the board county services had helped her make a lot of changes in her life.

She takes her prescribed medicine, she's on her own, and she has friends, can prepare her own meals and is able to go out.

"I have some self esteem and have learned it is OK to make mistakes," Cavazos said. "I now know you don't have to be perfect to be loved.

"No one asks to have a mental illness," she said.