Westminster House Inc. and Eyerly-Ball Community Mental Health Services are divisions of Behavioral Health Resources, Inc.  Behavioral Health Resources, Inc. combines the services, expertise and proud histories of Eyerly-Ball Community Mental Health Services and Westminster House, Inc. This affiliate network provides a continuum of mental health care services that allows individuals easy access to any combination of services at any level of need.

Click here for staff at the BHR facility

The joining of these two well-respected agencies brings a comprehensive array of community-based treatment and support services to over 3,000 central Iowans. Over 100 dedicated staff members offer a variety of mental health services including assessment, outpatient counseling and therapy, case management, in-home services, residential services, and outreach programs.

The goal of Behavioral Health Resources is to deliver community based psycho-social services that are responsive to community needs. This is carried out through Westminster House programs that provide residential services and community based support to persons with mental illness and by Eyerly-Ball CMHS programs that provide outpatient clinical services and community support for the mental health needs of individuals.

Behavioral Health Resources is dedicated to helping people recover from mental illness and to leading productive and fulfilling lives. Behavioral Health Resources is equally committed to educating the public about mental illness and increasing the understanding and acceptance of people who receive mental health services.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Eyerly-Ball Community Mental Health Services: Outpatient mental health counseling, therapy and psychiatric services are provided at the Eyerly-Ball clinic by a multi-disciplinary team of clinical social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health counselors and nurses. In this clinic setting individual, family and group therapy is provided in addition to psychiatric services, assessments/evaluations and medication management.

Warren County Mental Health Services: Outpatient mental health counseling, therapy, assessments, evaluations and case management services are provided to residents of Warren County. These services are coordinated with the Eyerly-Ball clinical outpatient services.

Westminster House Residential Care Facilities: This program provides comprehensive support and group housing in a structured program for 30 adults living with chronic mental illness. This professional staffed facility provides residential care services for the development of individualized programs that allow residents to achieve their full potential and to eliminate institutional and problem behaviors.

Mobile Crisis Response Team: This program consists of a mobile mental health team that is dispatched at the request of law enforcement to do on-site assessments of individuals when the offense is superceded by mental health issues. The program goals are to provide alternatives to incarceration, link individuals to appropriate care and reduce the amount of time police spend tending to these situations.

Senior Outreach Program: This multi-disciplinary program provides in-home assesments, treatment and referral services to the elderly, who need physical and mental health services in Polk and Warren Counties. This program effectively integrates nursing, social work, and medicine.

Supported Community Living: Supported Community Living is an outreach program designed for persons with serious and persistent mental illness or mental retardation/developmental disabilities. Program components include outreach, meeting basic needs, rehabilitation, crisis intervention, housing and living arrangements, coordination and development of support systems, advocacy and service coordination.

Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation: IPR assists persons in overcoming disabilities resulting from a serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI). IPR assists individuals to achieve goals that improve their success and satisfaction in key areas such as social, vocational, educational, and residential functioning.

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BRIEF HISTORY OF AFFILIATE AGENCIES

WESTMINSTER HOUSE

Westminster House was incorporated in 1978 as a non-profit organization and began providing residential services to adults with serious and persistent mental illness in 1979. The agency began as a joint project of Westminster Presbyterian Church and the Mental Health Association of Polk County to provide quality residential treatment for adults following a period of psychiatric hospitalization. Westminster House, Inc. is non-sectarian but maintains informal ties with the church and the Presbytery. This service was a part of a Polk County plan to improve services to citizens with mental illness. Prior to Westminster House, living options following a period of psychiatric hospitalization were limited to institutional or substandard housing. The success of this program allowed the removal of most restrictive zoning practices for group homes, first in Des Moines, and then throughout Iowa.

In 1983 and 1984, Westminster House submitted applications for funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the building of two new residential care facilities. The first home, Westminster House II, was completed in 1986. The second, Westminster House III, was completed in 1988. The homes are located 1.5 miles from each other and situated in nice residential neighborhoods.The Westminster House Scattered Site Program began providing Community Supported Living Arrangement services in 1988. In 1991, the agency replaced the Department of Human Services as the administrator of the Housing Support Program. In 1993, Polk County Health Services asked Westminster House to develop Medicaid Targeted Case Management services. In 1994, Polk County Health Services subcontracted to Westminster House a state grant, for which Westminster House secured ten homes through the HUD Single Family Property Disposition Program. Two nationwide studies of services to persons with severe and persistent mental illness recognized the excellence of the Westminster House programs.

Westminster House has been particularly active in service system planning and development, policy development, and service system improvement. These activities began with advocating changes in discriminatory zoning practices. Since 1986, Westminster House has operated programs in accordance with HUD federal preference requirements for homeless individuals.

EYERLY-BALL COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

In 1965, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to create a system of Community Mental Health Centers across the country. This groundbreaking legislation was the start of non-institutional, public mental health systems. Service system planning and development began with the agency's participation with the Mental Health Coordinating Commission in the mid 1960's, leading to the incorporation of the Polk County Mental Health Center Board, Inc., in 1966. In December of 1968 the Polk County Board of Supervisors contributed $48,000 to the development of a freestanding community mental health center and in 1969 Eyerly-Ball Community Mental Health Services (then known as the Polk County Mental Health Center) began providing outpatient treatment services.

Eyerly-Ball has been a contracted provider of outpatient psychiatric services for Polk County Health Services since 1976. The agency has existed as a community based provider, offering an alternative to the hospital-based services at Broadlawns Medical Center. An affiliation agreement has been in place with Broadlawns Medical Center since the early 1970's. Eyerly-Ball uses the Crisis Team for after hours services, as well as the hospital for inpatient admissions.

In 1989, in conjunction with PCHS, the Elderly Outreach Program was developed and in 1994, Eyerly-Ball contracted with PCHS to provide Targeted Case Management for mentally ill residents, adding MR/DD Case Management in July 1996. In March 2001, Eyerly-Ball became the first agency to provide Supported Community Living Adult Rehab Option services in Polk County.

By its very nature, the agency has served consumers with the most serious behavioral health disorders, limited resources, and dysfunctional lifestyles. Eyerly-Ball has met the challenge of working with clients with more special needs. Homeless individuals have been served through the relationship with Broadlawns Medical Center. The agency has participated in a Department of Public Health Task Force to make recommendations to the Governor on AIDS/HIV public policy, as well as funding of services.

LOCATION OF SERVICES:

Westminster House III 
940 Cummins Parkway
Des Moines, IA 50312 

Westminster House II
5631 Francis Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50310
South of Hickman off  56Th St.

Eyerly-Ball Community Mental Health Services
1301 Center Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
Just north of Methodist Hospital