Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Eyerly Ball?

Eyerly Ball is a not for profit 501(c)3, non-sectarian agency providing a comprehensive array of community based mental health services. Eyerly Ball also offers residential services through two facilities located in Des Moines: Cummins House and Francis House.

Eyerly Ball operates the Golden Circle network located at the 19th Street address. Golden Circle is a for profit network which is owned in part by Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa.

2. What is the mission of the agency?

The mission: Innovative solutions for today’s mental health challenges.

3. Who are the clients?

Over 4800 adults receive mental health services through Eyerly Ball annually. Clients are from Polk and Warren counties.

4. Who leads Eyerly Ball?

Eyerly Ball has a seventeen member Board of Directors which meets monthly and provides governance to the agency.

5. How long has Eyerly Ball been serving the Central Iowa community?

For over 38 years Eyerly Ball has been providing mental health services in Central Iowa. Eyerly Ball was founded in 1969 as the Polk County Mental Health Center, and Westminster House was founded in 1978 to provide residential services. These two agencies merged in 1996 and became Behavioral Health Resources. In 1997, Behavioral Health Resources joined with another agency (Goodwill Industries) in pioneering a network of innovative services to the community through Golden Circle Behavioral Health. In June, 2009, the new name of Eyerly Ball was adopted for the agency.

6. What is the scope of services offered by the agency?

Eyerly Ball provides a variety of mental health services to meet individual client and family needs. Services can be brief to long term and include the following:

Assessment of needs
Outpatient therapy
Outreach and In-home services
Residential care
Crisis intervention
Case management
Psychiatric rehabilitation

7. Who provides services?

Over 125 staff members provide clinical, residential, and outreach services.

Eyerly Ball has 26 masters level employees; one ARNP Nurse Practitioner; three psychiatrists and 11 Registered Nurses. Two consulting psychiatrists are employed in our Program for Assertive Community Treatment. Other staff include direct care workers, case managers, administrative and support staff.

8. How well is Eyerly Ball providing services it now offers to the community?

The results of Eyerly Ball satisfaction surveys indicate that we have a 91% average score across disparate groups that include consumers, family and guardians, and other service providers supporting clients who receive Eyerly Ball services.

9. Why provide support for Eyerly Ball?

The work of Eyerly Ball is critical to the health and welfare of our community. We are working to improve the lives and well being of several thousand individuals whose lives touch many families and children of our community. Many of the individuals seen by the organization are experiencing a significant mental health challenge that disrupts their lives and triggers problems of living within their families or environment. Our task is to respond to the crisis and move the person and their children toward these goals: stabilization, productivity and maintaining themselves in the community.