Becoming a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) is a big deal. Doing it without the benefit of funding through the demonstration projects, an expansion grant, or direct municipal funding had never happened.
Until now.
Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center is now the first 501c3 nonprofit in the nation to achieve certification all on its own, without these three funding models noted above. The Center received its provisional Community Behavioral Health Clinic Certification today, June 27, 2022, through the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.
“This is incredible news,” said Bert Nash Center CEO Patrick Schmitz. “I am so proud of and humbled by the Center’s team in getting us to CCBHC certification.”
In April 2021, Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bill establishing a new CCBHC model for providing behavioral health services in Kansas. The signing made Kansas the first state to pass legislation adopting the CCBHC model. Eventually, it is expected that all 26 community mental health centers in the state, such as the Bert Nash Center, will make the transition to the CCBHC model.
Schmitz said the CCBHC model is a “new way of organizing care delivery around the individual served. Its focus is on integration, allowing clients to get care in a truly integrated fashion.”
Marsha Page-White, senior director of Innovation and Implementation for the Bert Nash Center, has been the point person leading the Center through the process to become a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic.
CCBHC is a model built on a three-pillar foundation of Integrated Care, Sustainable Funding and Evaluation.
“This change will be better for our clients, better for our community, and a better way for us to provide services and get people access to care when they need it,” Page-White said.