News & Notes

Nicole Rials, Bert Nash Access Center team leader, was a guest this morning on Marcia Epstein’s Talk With ME program. The interview will air at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 18th, on Lawrencehits.com. Thank you, Marcia, for your coverage of mental health issues! #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth ‪#TalkAboutMentalHealth ‪#EndTheStigma

Recipients of this year’s Bert Nash Pioneer Award are both pioneers. Each in her own way. Shirley Martin-Smith and Teresa Treanor were honored April 20th during the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center’s annual Pioneer Celebration, which recognizes community leaders for their support of mental health in Douglas County. The Pioneer Award “is given to an individual whose efforts and achievements to secure accessible and comprehensive community mental health services for all

It seemed fitting when Ganis Himes accepted the Sandra Shaw Spirit Award at the Bert Nash Pioneer Celebration on April 20 that she asked her fellow after-hour screeners to join her. Himes, who supervises the after-hour screeners for Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, thinks of herself as one of them. And she is. Himes, who started doing mental health screens for Bert Nash in 1992, was one of the first screeners in the state. “I was working as a case manager at the time

Learn about the Bert Nash Health Connections program at a health fair from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, 2015, in the second-floor meeting rooms at the Community Health Facility, 200 Maine St. in Lawrence. The purpose of the health fair is to promote the Health Connections program to the community. Representatives from other community partners will be on hand, including Douglas County Housing Authority, Just Food, Kansas Legal Services, Lawrence-Douglas County Heal

It is never too late to get help. Which is why the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center offers a program geared specifically toward older adults. “I have worked with people in their 90s,” said Ruth Shadel, the Bert Nash therapist who started the Center’s Successful Aging Program in 2004. In fact, since they are aware that the time is ticking, elderly individuals may be more inclined to get medical help. Many people on their own refer themselves to the doctors to treat any

Julie Berndsen has been singing since she was a young girl. She sang publicly for the first time when she was in sixth grade. She performed in a community musical of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” That was the start of her singing career. “People said you should keep on doing that, so I kept on doing that,” Berndsen said. She’s still doing that. Berndsen, whose day job is working as a waiver facilitator (coordinating care for children’s mental health services

When Sondra’s former husband came back from Iraq in 2004 he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As a result of his PTSD, he became abusive and violent. Sondra knew she needed to protect herself, so she moved to a shelter for victims of domestic violence. At the shelter she suffered from her own PTSD along with ‘dissociative amnesia’. Dissociative amnesia is a condition that occurs when someone blocks out stressful events or violent episodes. In 2006 So

Tanya Guy had plenty of reasons to give thanks this holiday season. “I’m energetic. I feel healthy. I’m not as depressed. My mental health is a lot better. I have a better outlook about life,” she said. Guy didn’t used to feel this way. “I was really over weight, really out of shape,” she said. “I was smoking cigarettes. I would sit in my apartment and watch TV. I was eating TV dinners. I weighed 240 pounds, depressed, in and out of the hospital. My sugars were sky high, out

My mother came from Russia and my grandfather from Greece. The family history is seriously steeped in traditions. Most of my family has passed away now, but the traditions remain. Christmas and its traditions have a deep significance in the lives of many – all across the world. Christmas signs on the front porch, starlit trees and the gifts beneath them, there is nothing to not like about the holiday season! And let us not forget the delicacies that we get to savor throughout

You don’t have to be a musician to play music or appreciate good music. At least it’s not a requirement of music therapy. You may simply wish to sing – your voice is an instrument after all. Or, you may want to visit a guitar store and get yourself a guitar. Plenty of guitar stores sell guitars for beginners, and it’s the perfect instrument for music therapy because it’s so easy to start playing. Or you could simply listen to a soothing music that can help overcome your anxie

The Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority have received an award of $75,000 from the Kansas Housing Resources Corp. for continuation of the Community Support Services HOME Tenant Based Rental Assistance program. The funds will be administered by the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority and are available December 1st. Collaboration between the Bert Nash Center and the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, the Commu

IOP, as it’s called, can be thought of like a “recovery” menu. Included on that menu is a whole range of mental health services that are available, depending on the client’s needs. The intensive outpatient program (IOP) at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center has been helping Douglas County residents since 1997 – and keeping them out of state and private hospitals whenever possible. “IOP is a program that is in lieu of being in the hospital,” said Eunice Ruttinger, Ad