News & Notes

Elinor Hurst has been on both sides of the mental health field. As a client and a mental health worker. It’s all part of her story. “I really enjoy sharing my story,” Elinor said. “Because I think it’s important to talk about mental health.” As a former peer support specialist for the Bert Nash Center, Elinor shared her story with others who were on their own mental health journey. “That’s what I did when I worked in peer support,” Elinor said. “My first client, when we first

Precola has dealt with mental health issues for much of her life. It’s OK, she said, to ask for help. “Your mental health is just as important as your physical health,” she said. Precola started receiving services at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center after her husband passed away in 2018. “I decided to seek help,” she said. “At first, I went to Bert Nash for crisis help and then I went to Stormont Vail in Topeka. I started going to Bert Nash regularly after that.”

His mental health journey hasn’t always been easy, but he’s grateful for the path it has put him on. “It’s been a rough journey at times,” said JG, a Bert Nash Center client. “But it’s definitely been worth it.” When JG returned to Lawrence in 2018, he began seeing Cassie Parker, an Adult Services therapist at the Bert Nash Center. They quickly developed a level of trust. “She always remembers the things we’ve talked about,” JG said. “That really built up a relationship, wher

The Bert Nash Center continues to experience negative financial impacts associated with COVID-19. Our Center’s participation in the Paycheck Protection Program provided a bridge for us, but unfortunately, we must make additional cuts to be sustainable. These cuts will come in two forms: workforce reduction and salary reduction. Workforce reduction Fifteen (15) positions will be eliminated, effective July 4, 2020. Some of these positions are open and will simply not be filled.

During a 2014 interview, the late Bob Nash was asked about his father and the community mental health center that bears his name. “I like to think about all of the lives that have been changed because of my father’s work,” Bob Nash said. “That’s what I think of when I see Bert Nash.” Bob Nash’s father, Dr. Bert Nash, collapsed while giving a presentation February 18, 1947, at a Lions Club meeting at the Eldridge Hotel in downtown Lawrence. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage an

In the last two years, the Bert Nash Center has trained and certified more than 1,000 new Mental Health First Aiders. These community members, parents, teachers, friends, and colleagues learned the skills needed to help identify when a friend, colleague, student, or family member is struggling with their mental health or is in crisis. They also learn how to be helpful in the moment, both by helping someone connect to appropriate professional help as well as by being a nonjudg

Working and living in Lawrence at the time, Barbara Nash had heard of the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, but that was it. Until she met Bob Nash. That was in 1977. Some friends set them up on a blind date. “It did not go well,” Barbara said. Fortunately, there was a second date. “I am a rabid Jayhawk fan and the second date was a KU-K-State basketball game. KU won. There’s no way it could have possibly not gone well,” Barbara said. The couple was married two years

The Bert Nash Center is celebrating Juneteenth virtually this year with Juneteenth KC and virtual celebrations across the United States. You can join, too, by going to the Juneteenth KC website https://bit.ly/3djBMKG, the Nelson-Atkins commemoration https://bit.ly/3fHFjnA, and storytelling and performance from the Amistad Center for Art & Culture. Friday night https://bit.ly/314E0uS, the Carver Museum & Cultural Center will celebrate with livestream music and spoken work per

The Bert Nash Center celebrates the Supreme Court’s decision Monday, June 15, 2020 affirming what we already believe and practice: that being gay or transgender should not put someone’s job at risk. Everyone should be able to be fully who they are — and it is our responsibility as a community to create that inclusivity where it isn’t present.

It is with sorrowful hearts that introspect is taken. For, it is in the land of the free that feelings of unrest trouble the spirit. Who else begs the question? — In whose bosom does freedom lie? With 2020 lenses, some feel closer to the calamities of historical apartheid South Africa and Jim Crow America — experiencing trepidations of déjà vu. No longer is it an experience that the young ones read from a history text, or capture from an interview with a first-hand elder. Ech

Steve Maceli, owner of Maceli’s Banquet Hall and Catering, is the 2019 recipient of the Bert Nash Pioneer Award. The award was presented April 22 at the annual Bert Nash Pioneer Celebration. Steve represented Bert Nash at the Transformations Charity Gala in January and was the winning contestant, earning $10,000 for WRAP (Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities), a school-based mental health program. Steve is also a generous supporter of Bert Nash in many other ways. T

Douglas County Friends and Neighbors, Black Lives Matter. I entered the mental health profession in part because of pain I had experienced in my life and the help I received from a community-based mental health provider much like the Bert Nash Center. Watching the news is to see pain aired on live television. Some of us turn away, overwhelmed. Some of us become sympathetic, separating ourselves from the experience of others. Some of us simply feel at a loss…don’t know what to