News & Notes

As advocates for children who are in protective custody, CASA volunteers are on the frontlines working with individuals who are dealing with a variety of mental health issues. Diana Frederick, executive director of Douglas County CASA, wanted to make sure her CASA volunteers had the training they needed to be better prepared to deal with a variety of challenging situations. First aid on any level is important as it can be needed several times whether that be mental or physica

Amy and T.Q. Warren wake up every morning wondering if this will be the day. If this will be the day they get “The Call.” The call notifying them a donor has been found for their son Cortez, who turned 4 on March 10th, and who needs a heart transplant. They have been doing everything in their power to find him a brand new heart so that he can run around like every other kid his age. It took quite a bit of consultation with various doctors before they decided on where to have

The need was there. Now there’s the accessibility. Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and DCCCA have partnered to make it easier for consumers of mental health services to receive alcohol and substance abuse counseling. Annas Lefort, a behavioral health clinician from DCCCA, is on site at Bert Nash one day a week to meet with clients. “We developed the partnership so that drug and alcohol assessment and brief intervention services would be available to mental health cli

People with serious mental illness, on average, die 25 years earlier than the general population. Sara Volweider is doing her part to change that statistic. Volweider, an AmeriCorps member, serves as a health coach at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. Her yearlong AmeriCorps position is funded through Douglas County United Way. “She works one-on-one with clients to help them find resources in the community that may help them with a health issue,” said Linda Davis,

Congratulations to Rosemary Corbin, who will be the new Access Center team leader, replacing Sherry Demarest, who is retiring. And thank you, Sherry, for your years of service on behalf of Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and its consumers. We will miss you! Corbin said of her predecessor: “For far longer than I’ve been a part of the Bert Nash team, Sherry has acted as the fearless leader of the Access Center. For my time here, Sherry has been my mentor. She has provi

In February, the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center will offer a Youth Mental Health First Aid class. The class is for adults who work with youth. Youth Mental Health First Aid is an eight-hour training course designed to help people identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness or a mental health crisis.The class will meet from 4-6 p.m. on Mondays in February at the Center, 200 Maine St. To register, call 785-843-9192. For a schedule of upcoming classes,

Representatives of the Kansas Mental Health Positive Behavior Support Project gave members of Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center’s Child and Family Services staff a sneak peek Jan. 9 of the "to-go box" the department will receive as part of its participation in the positive behavior support project. The to-go box includes an iPad, laptop, printer and other resources Child and Family team members can use in the field.

Music is more than an art form. It’s therapy. And it can be an enjoyable way to learn. Just ask students in the secondary therapeutic classroom at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. The therapeutic classroom is a partnership between Bert Nash and USD 497. “It’s fun,” said one of the students. “I like playing the drums, guitar and all the other instruments.” This semester’s results have been encouraging. “We actually played our first song recently, without stopping,

The Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority have received an award of $110,000 from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation 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. A collaboration between the Bert Nash Center and the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority,

Bert Nash psychiatrist Joe Douglas gave a presentation recently for Ecumenical Christian Ministries at the University of Kansas. He began his talk in a rather unorthodox manner. He opened with a song he wrote. “A lot of the songs I’ve written make a political point, but do it by way of satire,” said Douglas, who has been a member of a politically activist singing group called The New World Order Peace Choir. The message of Douglas’ song was clear: The economic recession was

When Corinna Ehlers, a German social work professor from the University of Applied Sciences for Technic, Economy and Culture in Leipzig, started looking for information about case management practices in the United States, she didn’t know where her search would take her. Ultimately, her search led her across the Atlantic Ocean to the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare and then to the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. “When I started to focus on strengths-ba

There’s a new face on the Bert Nash homeless outreach team. And it’s clean-shaven. Kelly Martin joined the homeless outreach team at the first of October. His fellow team members — Brad Cook, Mathew Faulk and David Tucker — sport beards and mustaches. Apparently, facial hair is not a job requirement. “They keep telling me I have to grow a beard. But, no, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Martin said, laughing. “I’m not growing a beard.” Before joining the homeless outreach