Crossroads to close in March

Crossroads Behavioral Health, one of the only locations in Southwestern Iowa for outpatient therapy, will be closing soon. Crossroads Executive Director Brittany Palmer announced to county officials the behavioral health clinic will close on March 13.

After months of absences from Union County meetings, Crossroads attended a meeting Wednesday for the first time since the Iowa Auditor’s Office released a special investigation into the clinic’s use of federal funds.

While the initial agenda item for Palmer was to discuss the next fiscal year’s opioid funding with the county and to recap their school outreach program in Creston and East Union, the visit instead focused on uncertain waters ahead.

“The original goal today was to ask for funding for next year,” Palmer said. “But, unfortunately, I did want to let the supervisors know Crossroads is in the process of closing. We’re in dissolution at this point in time.”

That school program, one which saw another successful year according to Palmer, could end early if “logistics with staff” isn’t sorted before Crossroads’ closing. Beyond, the program is not looking to renew for the next school year. Palmer said she’s hoping services clients rely on will be able to continue for as long as possible.

“Just because our clinics close doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to be providing these services and things,” Palmer said. She mentioned Crossroads has a board meeting Friday to discuss these additional matters.

Palmer thanked the board of supervisors for their support of Crossroads through this dissolution. She informed the board that a business focusing on outpatient services, Rosecrance Jackson Centers of Iowa, has taken interest in using the former Crossroads building.

“This is not a merger or acquisition; Crossroads is dissolving and another nonprofit clinic is looking at picking up services,” Palmer said.

This would be Rosecrance Jackson’s first step into Southwest Iowa; the behavioral health organization, headquartered in Illinois, has clinics around Northwest Iowa in Spencer, Sioux City, Cherokee and Le Mars. Palmer said the organization was taking early looks in the area but couldn’t say which programs might continue under them.

Another program potentially lost with Connections’ closure is the jail-based rehabilitation program for inmates. The program covers any inmate who is referred to Crossroads either through a court order or a mental evaluation requested from the jail. Sheriff Brian Bolton had championed the program, saying in a May 2025 meeting it helped inmates direct themselves after serving hard time.

This program, among others, was funded partially through county opioid dollars. These county dollars were a part of a special investigation by the Iowa Auditor’s Office which concluded mismanagement of the fund, although Palmer and Crossroads denied this at the time of the investigation’s release.

Rosecrance Jackson could apply for county opioid dollars if situated, but details on how the clinic will be structured in Union County put county supervisors on hold. Supervisor Rick Friday said he’d prefer if the new clinic would have supervisor representation on the board if they would like to use county dollars.

“If they’re going to request additional public funding in the future, that’s one of the things we would like to have appointed from this board,” Friday said. “We’ll wait to see what happens.”

Supervisor Dennis Hopkins attends the Crossroads meetings as a county representative. Hopkins said Crossroads’ closure has “nothing to do” with the special investigation released by the auditor’s office.

“We’ve always worked on a very tight budget,” Hopkins said. “By no fault of Crossroads, it’s just when you’re on a really tight budget it’s been impossible to sustain long-term. We were successful with that, and then changes occur. When you’re on the line it doesn’t take much to tip you one way or the other.”

Hopkins commended Palmer for working with other behavioral health organizations in convincing them to adopt the programs Crossroads has built. The priority for Crossroads looking ahead toward closure is to find these programs a home.

“The primary thing we’ve talked about on that board is we want to save services for our community,” Hopkins said. “If we didn’t make this move at this time, some point down the road we wouldn’t be here and we would have no one taking over these services.”