CICS presents annual report to supervisors

Remarking upon the accomplishments listed in Central Iowa Community Services’ (CICS) fiscal year 2018 annual report, CEO Jody Eaton is probably most proud of the implementation of the mobile response team, Crisis Go, in Jasper County this past year.

“That was a huge project, and it’s going well,” Eaton told the Jasper County Board of Supervisors during its Tuesday morning meeting. “We’re seeing a lot of benefits from that.”

In July, the Newton Daily News reported Jasper County, part of an 11-county region, accounted for a vast majority of the calls for Crisis Go services. Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty said when the need arises, the local mobile crisis response team is “probably one of the most valuable resources” the sheriff’s office has on-hand.

Eaton presented CICS’s annual findings the Supervisors Tuesday, while also drawing attention to the 2018 report’s listing of services provided, the number of individuals served and other interesting data figures. The fiscal year report had already been approved by the CICS governing board and submitted to the Iowa Department of Human Services by Dec. 1, 2018.

Of course, Eaton and CICS — an organization which provides coordination and financial support for mental health and disability services to individuals in need — had plenty more to be proud about in the past year other than its mobile crisis response team.

CICS continued to provide access the mental health outpatient services and allowed providers the ability to access funding to recruit additional professional staff members. The organization developed a crisis stabilization residential unit in Ames and maintained access for mental health and co-occurring services in the jail and began reimbursing the jail for psychotropic medications for incarcerated individuals.

In the past year, Eaton said CICS implemented additional jail diversion services to be available in each the 11 counties it serves — Jasper, Boone, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Hardin, Madison, Marshall, Poweshiek, Story and Warren.

The organization also provided support for 40-hour crisis intervention training with law enforcement officials, allowing them the skills they need to handle individuals “who are in crisis and having mental health issues.”

“We’ve continued to support education and training for providers,” Eaton told the board. “We had a lot of success in getting additional training to providers. If we can give them more tools to be successful, we see less turnover in the patients or the residents they are serving as well.”

Reviewing expenditures from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2018, Eaton surmised CICS is increasing its crisis services, the cost of which has risen. Simultaneously, the cost for mandated services, she said, has decreased slightly; something Eaton said she and her staff are happy about.

Tax levies, Eaton estimates, are likely to stay roughly the same for Jasper County.

In other action Tuesday, the board of supervisors:

• Approved an employee hiring resolution, filling the vacant assistant county attorney position. Nicholas Pietrack will take over the position once held by current County Attorney Scott Nicholson, and will be paid an annual standard rate, no scale salary of $70,000.

• Approved an amendment to the agreement between Jasper County and RL Contractors, Inc. for the courthouse masonry repairs. The amendment holds the contractor responsible “for the repair/replacement of all damaged items and areas, internal or external, as a result of any masonry joints left open or repaired incorrectly through the winter and until the project is completed.” Substantial completion will be extended from Dec. 31, 2018, to May 31, 2019.

• Approved an assignment of two county-held tax sale certificates to the City of Colfax.

• Approved the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office’s quarterly report. During the public input and comments portion of the meeting, Halferty clarified what he believed were misconceptions of his office’s new home visitation system.

“I don’t know if my statements were taken out of context or if the media reported it incorrectly, but we fielded multiple calls now that there’s this perception that you have to pay to visit inmates. To clarify, the equipment being replaced that’s on-site, you can still visit your loved one or friend on-site for no charge like we’ve always have,” Halferty said.

The upgraded system, he added, will allow out-of-state relatives to visit with their relatives utilizing the new technology by paying a small convenience fee.

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