Mental health counseling returns to Creston

When Crossroads Behavioral Health Services closed as an entity earlier this year, many clients were left without care close to home. Rosecrance Jackson Centers hopes to help those migrating to the new service.

In a familiar location of 210 Russell St., the same location where Crossroads once operated, and with a familiar supervisor at the helm, Rosecrance’s new location in Creston hopes to build a high-quality level of service through a seamless transition of previous clients.

Rosecrance holds 43 locations across Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana alongside plenty of virtual options. The Rosecrance Jackson Centers target areas in Iowa, based on a location in Council Bluffs.

Clinical/Satellite Supervisor Brittany Palmer, who previously served as Director at Crossroads, oversees the day-to-day operations of the new Creston site, which will cover Union, Adams, Adair and Taylor counties as their “focused counties,” with additional services for Clarke, Madison, Ringgold and Decatur counties.

Palmer said Rosecrance hopes to grow within the area as they get their roots planted.

“Rosecrance’s long-term vision is to regrow the footprint we had and still be able to provide services,” Palmer said. “We’re starting with core outpatient services with mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling and medication management. With those core services, we can continue to assess the needs as we go forward.”

Due to Rosecrance’s network of offices, even if the local office can’t provide a service, another site could. Through the network of providers and telehealth services, Rosecrance hopes transitions will be seamless.

“They can call in to our office for an evaluation or resources of some sort,” Palmer said. “We might not provide at this site, but we can provide at another site. We can call for primary care association providers. That’s the good thing about being with Rosecrance; there’s more seamless resources for people’s transistion.”

About 20% of former Crossroads staff have made the transition to Rosecrance, mostly those providing core services. For many clinicians who stayed through the transition, their clients have already transitioned to Rosecrance as well.

Palmer hopes that with a network like Rosecrance behind behavioral health services in Creston, more rural patients will receive the care they need.

“Rosecrance is going to have more opportunities to bring services in our area,” Palmer said. “We don’t want to go backwards in our area seeking mental health and substance abuse services. I’m very happy there’s still a place that we can offere those services because we are needed.”

As the year continues and Rosecrance becomes more established, Palmer said she hopes to work more with the local community and government, including the board of health and county supervisors. She understands the value of having a service like Rosecrance in the Creston area.

“This was one of our goals in the transition: to find a reputable quality driven in our organization that would strengthen things that we were struggling with prior,” Palmer said. “There was a lot of need and we were struggling with capacity issues. Having an organization with good rapport with the state and state officials to bring into our area was important. Given our rural issues, we’re not always going to have the things we need right here. We have to provide more of that because it’s so important for our community.”