T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY The building that houses the Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of Central Iowa (SATUCI), which was formerly shared with Center Associates, sits at 9 N. 4th Ave. in Marshalltown. Two representatives from SATUCI asked the Board of Supervisors for Marshall County’s support in applying for grants to purchase the other half of the building and expand its operations during Wednesday morning’s meeting.

The Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of Central Iowa, better known by its abbreviation SATUCI, is planning an expansion to better meet the needs of its patients in the area, and on Wednesday morning, two of the organization’s leaders came before the Marshall County Board of Supervisors requesting a letter of support for the project.

SATUCI Executive Director Jenny Etter and Clinical Director Darcy Parks provided an update on the expansion plan for the facility, located at 9 N. 4th Ave. and explained that a letter of support would be utilized as they apply for grants to help fund the project.

As Etter noted, they will be asking for federal, state and local grant funding to pay for additional staff members, purchase funds for the building and renovation of the building. SATUCI’s presence in Marshalltown dates back over 40 years, and for much of that time, they shared a building with Center Associates before CA moved to the south side of town near the new hospital last summer. Currently, the two entities co-own the building, but SATUCI aims to buy the rest of it.

“Over the last few years, we have realized — and the state realized — that we don’t just provide substance abuse services, but 80 percent of the people that need services with us also have mental health issues,” Etter said. “So what we provide is called integrated behavioral health services, meaning the people that come to us have substance abuse (and) mental health issues which they titled co-occurring disorders. It’s kind of like the chicken or the egg. You don’t know which came first. Did they have a mental health disorder and they self medicated, or did they have a substance abuse (problem) that led to mental health symptomology?”

She added that while SATUCI doesn’t intend to be a mental health clinic, the services often become necessary as they treat individuals struggling with substance abuse. As a result, Etter hopes to hire more clinical, prevention and support staff. Currently, they see between 1,200 and 1,500 patients a year, and Etter anticipates the number increasing by 300 to 400 over the next few years.

“Our staff now is sufficient for what we’re doing, but with our expansion planned, we have developed collaborations with community members to provide services to more people in our counties,” she said.

Some of those collaborators include UnityPoint Health, Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA), Central Iowa Rehabilitation Services, Together We Can and Marshall County Veterans Affairs, and Etter highlighted a lack of substance abuse services for local veterans who are not IVH residents.

“For veterans and their families in this community to get services, they have to go to Des Moines, so we’re working with Kevin (Huseboe) to talk about referrals and how we can help transport and how we can get them to our services, and if they need referrals out, what does that mean?” Etter asked.

Parks then took over the microphone and described some of the services SATUCI provides for patients — including OWI classes, anxiety/depression groups, relapse prevention groups, recovery groups, peer groups, breaking the cycle groups and outpatient treatment — and how they get referred there in the first place.

“We continually look at ‘What do our clients need?’ So continually assessing, talking to our clients, ‘What kind of groups do you need? What do we need to be doing?'” Parks asked. “I could tell you these are my groups today. Now, next month they might change because we’ve identified we have a lot of men that need something… Just kind of ever changing, really our goal is to be able to meet the needs of the clients in our community.”

One of the key needs Parks highlighted is to have a medical provider on staff as part of the expansion, as many people use medication to help them if they are struggling with alcohol, opioids and/or methamphetamine. They recently hired Andrea Storjohann, who had previously been at Primary Health Care, to fill that role.

Parks said she is currently the only mental health person on staff, and she hopes to add a few more as SATUCI expands if they are able to obtain a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant. Etter told the board she sees SATUCI as an “anchor” of the eastern part of the downtown district.

“We firmly want to stay where we are,” she said. “Really, we want to be part of the vibrancy of the community, and with everything being vacated around us, we want to establish that we’re alive and well and really do a good job of renovating the property and bringing that up to speed.”

They expect to hear about the grant by September. Supervisor Carol Hibbs asked about how SATUCI avoids an overlap of services with Center Associates, and Etter responded that if a prospective patient only has mental health issues, they would be referred to CA unless the problems are “co-occurring” along with substance abuse.

With about 20 staff now, Etter hopes to increase the number by five or six to accommodate the expansion. She said that even as some other agencies are downsizing, the demand is not slowing down, and as a result, she wants to grow, not contract.

Board Chairman Jarret Heil asked about the cost of the building purchase and renovations, and Etter said the assessed value from a local realtor was between $400,000 and $500,000 for the entire building — as previously noted, SATUCI already owns half of it. The first of two phases of renovation is expected to cost around $100,000.

Heil expressed concern about the potential for nonprofits “eating their own” with some of the other agencies in the area providing similar services and said he had “a little pause” on whether or not he would support it. Supervisor Steve Salasek asked for input from Marshall County Sheriff Joel Phillips, who said SATUCI is an organization his department “relies on heavily” in the court system — particularly drug court — and for incarcerated individuals who utilize their services.

“What we kind of run into working with SATUCI is they may have (someone) as a client outside, and then they end up in our facility and continue that care. Telehealth is a big asset,” Phillips said.

A motion from Hibbs to authorize the letter of support, which does not require any sort of financial commitment at the present time, was carried by a 2-1 vote with Heil opposed. Heil explained his vote was a “not yet” because he needed more time to do research, not because he was against the expansion. Hibbs said she believed it was necessary to move forward due to the timeline for the grant.