NEWS & NOTES

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