House concurrent resolution honoring
former Counseling Service of Addison County Medical Director Dr. Robert C. Jimerson
Offered by: Representative Birong of Vergennes, 5.18.2021

Whereas, the Counseling Service of Addison County (CSAC) is a mental health agency established in 1959, and

Whereas, Dr. Bob Jimerson graduated from Yale School of Medicine, completed a joint psychiatry and neurology residency at Yale New Haven Health, and in 1988 CSAC appointed Dr. Bob Jimerson as the agency’s second medical director, and

Whereas, he combined personal participation with hands-on therapeutic treatment and served as a supportive administrator, and

Whereas, his counseling method involved patience, persistence, curiosity, and humor, and he was a calming influence at tense moments, and

Whereas, Dr. Bob Jimerson has now concluded his 32 years of serving as CSAC’s outstanding medical director, now therefore be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
That the General Assembly honors former Counseling Service of Addison County Medical Director Dr. Robert C. Jimerson, and be it further

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to Dr. Bob Jimerson and to the Counseling Service of Addison County.

FLOOR SPEECH delivered by CSAC BOARD MEMBER and ADDISON COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE MATT BIRONG on the floor of the
VERMONT HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, May 18, 2021

In the collection of messages honoring the Counseling Service of Addison County’s Medical Director, Dr. Robert Jimerson, at the annual meeting in December, two former colleagues conjured up nautical metaphors.
Said one: Thank you for being the lighthouse at the head of the harbor. You’ve always been the tiller to the boat, moving us in the right direction. Said another: You have been the anchor.
That is indeed Dr. Jimerson:
· the lighthouse at the head of the harbor giving focus to what’s ahead,
· the tiller, steering us, and
· an anchor, keeping us steady.
Dr. Jimerson stepped down as CSAC’s Medical Director at the beginning of 2021, after thirty-two years in that role. Bob has been a leader, teacher, and exemplary clinician in the field of psychiatry, particularly in the field of community psychiatry. He graduated from the Yale School of Medicine in 1974 and stayed in New Haven for his Psychiatry and Neurology residency from 1975-1977 at a time when relatively few graduates of Medical School chose psychiatry, let alone community psychiatry.
Dr. Jimerson began his practice in Burlington and was appointed consulting psychiatrist to the Baird Center. In 1988, CSAC Executive Director, Representative Bill Lippert, appointed Bob as its Medical Director, following the twenty-year tenure of the agency’s first Medical Director, Dr. Wilton Covey.
Dr. Jimerson has provided excellent patient care and clinical leadership for the citizens of Addison County.
He is a team player with both his colleagues and clients. “‘We are in this together and I will do everything I can to improve the quality of your life.’ This is the spirit we all admire.”
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He welcomes new ideas and encourages exploration of new treatment methods. He attends to international human rights principles and advocates for an individual’s rights to personal agency and dignity. He is non-equivocally passionate about creating funding parity for mental health services.
At the same time, Dr. Jimerson has worked on a state level for the benefit of all the citizens of Vermont. This includes serving as the chair of the Community and Hospital Psychiatry group for more than twenty years, bringing community-based and hospital-based psychiatrists together to advocate for patients, improve care, and build collegial relationships across the state. In state venues, like Vermont Psychological Association, he has used his voice to advocate for patients— especially as they cannot be at the table for most of those discussions.
He has served as a role model to trainees and early career psychiatrists, providing mentorship and guidance to numerous psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners who have chosen to call Vermont home. Says his successor (who studied under Bob): “I think of Bob as a conscience for all psychiatrists in Vermont, bringing us back to remembering what’s at stake in the work we do.”
Let me close with more reflections from the people he has worked with:
 “Thoughtful.”
 “Compassionate.”
 “Respect for individual autonomy and personal agency.”
 “Bob never loses sight of the humanness that links us all.
 “We are not staff, clients, consumers – with Bob, we are people crossing paths on our life journeys.”

You can watch the House Session HERE