Supervisors appoint Eaton’s replacement

Jody Eaton is retiring from Central Iowa Community Services (CICS), much to the chagrin of Jasper County staff who clearly respected her work when it comes to helping the needs of individuals with intellectual, mental health and other developmental disabilities.

Doug Bishop, the county treasurer, let out a well-intentioned “boo” in response to Eaton’s announcement. Brandon Talsma, chair of the board of supervisors, humorously recalled telling Eaton she could not retire after he took office. Julie Smith, the center director of Capstone Behavioral Healthcare, bemoaned similar sentiments, too, at the Tuesday morning board meeting.

Eaton’s presence will no doubt be missed, judging by these responses.

Replacing Eaton as the general assistance director and CICS administrative support at the end of the fiscal year is Connie McQuiston. The board of supervisors voted 3-0 to approve the appointmentduring its meeting Tuesday morning. McQuistion will receive a pay rate of $55,040, effective March 1.

Most of Eaton’s CICS duties will be transitioned by the governing board, she said. The process has already started and will continue to progress in the coming months.

Since Eaton’s regional duties for CICS have continued to expand, she has spent “less and less time” in the county operating the general assistance program. Those county responsibilities have fully transitioned to McQuiston, who worked alongside Eaton for several years.

“She’s been doing a real good job,” Eaton said. “She’s actually been in this role since January 2008 doing both MHDS (Mental Health & Disability Services), administrative support and general assistance worker … She’ll continue to fill both roles and so she’ll still be split 50/50 (CICS and general assistance).”

However, McQuiston will not be adopting the title of CEO for CICS, but will still work with the organization in an administrative capacity. Eaton expects McQuiston will likely become the department head of community services by the time she retires from the county.

Updates of CICS-funded services

Eaton also updated supervisors on the actions of the Jasper County Mobile Response. By the end of 2019, mobile response received 165 total calls in the county. CICS funds these types of services for a number of counties through grant funding. Eaton estimated about $6,056 is spend per month per county, or $72,674 per year per county.

The mobile response team is available to anybody in the 11-county region, which includes Jasper, Boone, Greene, Franklin, Hamilton, Hardin, Madison, Marshall, Poweshiek, Story and Warren. Eaton said people can also call the crisis line, which has converted to the Your Life Iowa line, 855-581-8111.

“Anyone experiencing a crisis — whether it’s adolescent behavioral issues, depression, anxiety, substance use, disorder issues, suicidal thoughts or just anything in between, anything that is overwhelming for an individual — they have that line available that they can call,” Eaton said.

Trained phone responders assess the situation and try to stabilize. If they feel it’s necessary they will then deploy the mobile crisis response team for an in-person consultation. The two-person team responds to the crisis within 60 minutes to any site in the CICS region. This is a 24/7 service.

About 71 percent of the calls in Jasper County were stabilized. Only about 8 percent of individuals were transported to the emergency room or inpatient units.

“We’ve seen an increase, also, in individuals accessing the crisis line on their own or accessing mobile response on their own,” Eaton said. “We do think that’s really good. If we can prevent that call to dispatch or to an officer if it isn’t necessary, that’s kind of one of the things we would like to see.”

Eaton provided supervisors with data from the Telehealth Psychiatric Evaluations provided in Jasper County this past year. About $26,260 worth of jail evaluations were completed and $121,500 worth of emergency department evaluations.

“The reason behind providing this service in the local (emergency departments) was to give a professional assessment at a local level prior to transporting individuals across the state to an inpatient unit, where then they would go to that emergency room (and) potentially receive an assessment and find that inpatient was not necessary,” Eaton said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com