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All those years ago, when I started on my own journey in changing my life, finding my new self – a better version of myself – I was uncertain where I belonged. I was angry, made bad choices and I was hurting. I simply wanted the pain to go away.
Through therapy and the caring people around me, I connected with a new sense of belonging. That’s what Bert Nash offers to our community, for kids, families and individuals - a place where they belong and can get the support they need, when they need it. For the last 72 years, we’ve made a commitment to the community that we will be that safety-net for anyone that needs help.
Last year we served close to 5,000 clients, and we’ve made progress in how we respond to needs, restore lives, and build a healthy community. I want to share with you some of the incredible strides the Center has made in these past 12 months.
We challenged ourselves to meet, not just one, but two national standards of excellence. We achieved both this summer. We are now a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, or what we refer to as CCBHC – making us the first 501c3 in the nation to achieve certification all on its own, without funding through demonstration projects, expansion grants or direct state or municipal funding.
The second achievement was receiving a three-year accreditation of excellence from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. Out of 2,100 standards that were reviewed, we only needed to improve on 13.
Our team has also implemented a new way of delivering a full range of intensive and highly integrated services to our most vulnerable neighbors who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness. This new program is called Assertive Community Treatment (ACT).
Historically, individuals who frequent hospitals would be discharged to the community with no support to integrate and continue recovery afterwards. This team has been able to serve more than 40 clients who will now experience less instability, fewer hospitalizations, and fewer law enforcement encounters. This team is well on its way to serving up to 100 of our neighbors at any given time.
Also, in partnership with Kansas Suicide Prevention Headquarters and our other behavioral health partners, we activated the new mobile response team in early September alongside the nationwide 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.
The Bert Nash Center is leading those mobile response efforts, but it wouldn’t be possible without the support from the county and partners who worked with us to bring to life this array of services.
This list of accomplishments is made possible because of our generous supporters, especially our Building Bert Nash Society, and many others in our community. Although we’ve expanded and implemented new transformative programs, we have so much more to do to break the destructive cycle of untreated mental illness. We remain committed to serving anyone who comes through our doors, regardless of their ability to pay, and we are creating a culture that’s inclusive of race, gender identity, faith, spirituality, ability, and sexual orientation.
At the Bert Nash Center, you belong.
- Patrick Schmitz, CEO