John Garringer retires from ASAC

CEDAR RAPIDS - For the past 30 years, John Garringer has worked at the Area Substance Abuse Council. For 28 of those years, he has been the organization's executive director.

This week marked his last one on the job before he begins retirement.

The Area Substance Abuse Council works to help individuals, families, workplaces and communities be healthy and drug free. The organization has offices throughout Eastern Iowa and covers a five-county area.

Over the course of his thirty-year career with the organization, Garringer - who plans to remain with ASAC as a volunteer - has seen different problems arise. However, he says the need for the services ASAC provides has remained.

'When I first started, probably 90 percent of our clients were alcohol clients,” said Garringer, 66, who lives in Van Horne with his wife. Secondary needs at the time included helping marijuana and cocaine users, he said.

Fifteen years ago, methamphetamine use began to grow in the community, creating a need for a specific type of assistance. So ASAC created a special program for methamphetamine clients and also provided specific training for staff to handle such clients.

'Now, we're seeing more clients with prescription drug abuse,” Garringer said. 'So the drug of choice changes.”

The treatment process can be different for users of each type of drug or alcohol, he said. Today, about 35 percent of clients seen at ASAC are in treatment for other drugs.

Garringer said one of his proudest accomplishments was the creation of Heart of Iowa, a treatment program developed for pregnant women and women with children. When it was first formed, there were only a handful of similar programs across the country.

'Prior to us starting that program, when someone came in and they were in the last trimester of a pregnancy, we would tell them you pretty much need to go home, have the baby, and then come back,” Garringer said. 'Women didn't like the idea of giving up their children when they came into residential care, so a lot of women were shut out of treatment before we opened up.”

Through Heart of Iowa, ASAC provides supportive services to children while women go through treatment, The organization also provides transportation for children to school.

'That's been a very rewarding program for us,” he said. 'We have literally 250 families a year that would have not been able to get in to treatment if we hadn't opened that.”

Other changes are also underway at the organization, where the final phase of a three-part remodeling project of the youth residential area is scheduled to be completed by January 15.

The $300,000 renovation project is being paid for entirely through community donations, Garringer said.

Barb Gay is the new executive director at ASAC. She is working closely with Garringer to ensure a smooth transition in leadership.

Gay said she also will work to stay current with the community's needs.

'We have to be able to keep our staff trained, informed of the trends, and knowledgeable about what's going on in the community so they can be very responsive to the community needs,” she said.

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