SATUCI Expands, Becomes Prairie Ridge South on October 1 | News, Sports, Jobs

TR PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM SATUCI Executive Director Jenny Etter and Clinical Director Darcy Maiden-Parks sit outside the building, half of which the nonprofit has occupied for the past 40 years. After Center Associates moved to the city’s South Side, the other half of the facility sat empty, but SATUCI recently took it over in a merger with Prairie Ridge Integrated Behavioral Healthcare.

SATUCI has been serving Marshalltown and the surrounding areas for over 40 years, providing treatment for substance abuse, gambling, DUI/OWI, and a variety of adult and youth counseling services. On October 1, it will merge with Prairie Ridge Integrated Behavioral Healthcare of Mason City to become Prairie Ridge South.

“We have an annual budget of $1.8 million and a staff of 20,” said SATUCI Executive Director Jenny Etter. “They have a budget of $23 million and a staff of about 160. We’re going to be able to do all the expansions that we wanted to do: more veterans services, more services in the Meskwaki Settlement — services that we can’t do because we just don’t have the staff and the funding.”

SATUCI serves Marshall, Tama, Poweshiek and Hardin counties with offices in Marshalltown, Tama, Grinnell and Eldora.

“This merger will allow us to provide substance abuse and mental health services in all of those counties and to staff and open up those offices more,” she added. “Being affiliated with Prairie Ridge will also allow us to be a mental health center, have residential services (in Mason City), and have a tremendously expanded prevention program and medication services.”

In addition to the merger, SATUCI is also expanding its physical presence.

“Next Wednesday – August 31 – we are purchasing the other half of our building from Center Associates, who has relocated, so we can expand and hire more staff,” Etter said.

Lorrie Young, president of Prairie Ridge, said her organization had been considering the acquisition for some time.

“Prairie Ridge and SATUCI have been partners in our space for years,” Young said. “This is something we’ve talked about on and off for the last 15 years, and the timing just never felt right. With some changes at the state level — changes in how behavioral health funding is going to look — the timing just seemed right. We’ve strengthened both organizations by working together.”

Young complimented SATUCI’s passion and dedication to its customers, as well as its knowledgeable staff.

“It allows us to share resources more effectively. Prairie Ridge is one of nine organizations in the state of Iowa that has been selected by Iowa Health and Human Services to serve as a state-designated Certified Community Behavioral Health Center — CCBHC,” Young noted. “CCBHCs really have a mission and an obligation to provide a higher level of integrated care than traditional behavioral health organizations. There’s a greater focus on data collection and data reporting and data analysis around outcomes around integrated care, really looking at substance use disorders, mental health, and physical health components of a person’s life, and bringing it all together in some way. And with this move, SATUCI is also being brought under that CCBHC umbrella.”

While it may take some time for the public to get used to SATUCI’s new name, Etter says she welcomes the change.

“A lot of people didn’t know what SATUCI was anyway. It sounds like a weird dance,” Etter said, laughing. “The acronym just didn’t fit us anymore — Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of Central Iowa. The only thing that really made sense was Central Iowa. We don’t have residential treatment, and we don’t just do substance abuse. We do mental health and a lot of other things. Our name didn’t really speak to what we did in an inclusive way. Our website will have more information and a link directly to Prairie Ridge so people can understand the whole picture.”

Etter said the merger comes at an ideal time in her 45-year career.

“I’m retiring at the end of the year. I’m going to be a consultant after I retire to help with grant writing and special projects. This is a great end to my career. I couldn’t have asked for more,” she said.

Etter previously led DVA (Domestic Violence Alternatives) in Marshalltown, before moving to the Quad Cities to lead a program there.

“I was gone for 38 years,” she said. “I moved back home when my parents got older and needed care.”

From 2012 to 2019, she served as Executive Director of the Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) before moving to SATUCI.

Young added that SATUCI and Prairie Ridge’s policies and procedures are largely aligned.

“I think this partnership brings some of Prairie Ridge’s resources to the table to ensure that SATUCI remains strong and viable into the future,” she said.

Etter noted that the public would benefit from the best of both agencies.

“You have to be creative when you don’t have a lot of resources. We’re used to that, so this is like heaven for us. More resources and more staff would be absolutely amazing,” she said.