A statement from CEO Patrick Schmitz

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 say or do...we care and may be sad but feel helpless and confused. Some of us become frustrated with how others are showing us their pain, ready to offer unsolicited advice of ways that we would theoretically approve of receiving those grievances.

In listening to the work of my colleagues, black women and men, I believe the way to respond to this pain is by listening and doing the work that I, as a white man, have been asked to do for a long time, whether I have ever really heard that request before. In therapy, in recovery, we say you can always start now. Today, I start again in a new way, different than I have been before.

As a Center, we have discerned our values to be Compassion, Equity, and Integrity on a Foundation of Hope. We work on living into our values and our commitment to community in numerous ways, including the important work we do with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Racial and Ethnic Disparities Work Group. Despite this, we still have room to grow and work to do.

I wish that I could say why today is different because it isn’t different in the experiences of our community members that are black, indigenous, or other people of color. Black people have been telling us for centuries about their experiences of oppression, brutality, dismissal, and discrimination.  Of being ignored, tokenized, asked how white people can help, only to have white people ignore them or do the opposite, being blamed for racism and tasked with ending racism alone.

While I can’t speak for everyone, I can say that I have not listened in the way that an ally should. I can and will do better. We can and will do better.

First, our Executive Team plans to undertake the important work of evaluating how implicit and unconscious bias are at work within our organization. This is a combination of personal work and organizational work, which we are committed to doing.

Second, we will celebrate Juneteenth on June 19, 2020, in a way that honors the day slavery ended in the United States.

Third, we will provide training and support for our staff to serve our community in culturally appropriate ways, recognizing with humility that this also means increasing our commitment to hiring a  diverse team to serve our diverse community. 

This is not an exhaustive list. Rather, these are the next steps that I and the Bert Nash Center are ready to take to help make our world a place filled with compassion, equity, and integrity, and, always, hope.

-- Patrick Schmitz, Chief Executive Officer