photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius speaks during an event celebrating Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center's full designation as a certified community behavioral health clinic Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center is one of more than 500 certified community behavioral health clinics nationwide, but only the first nonprofit in the country to earn the full designation. That’s an achievement worth celebrating, according to former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Sebelius and Laura Howard, the secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, were on hand Friday morning as Bert Nash staff did just that during an event in downtown Lawrence.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Laura Howard, the secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, speaks during an event celebrating Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center’s full designation as a certified community behavioral health clinic Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

As the Journal-World has reported, Bert Nash had been provisionally certified as a CCBHC since July of 2022 until earning full certification from KDADS earlier this month. That designation lays out the core services Bert Nash has to provide and the measurements and outcomes it has to meet. The designation also comes with a “cost-based reimbursement” methodology, in which the payer agrees to reimburse the provider for the costs incurred in providing services for the insured population. That applies to the majority of Bert Nash patients who are insured through Medicaid.

“I think it is so beneficial in this state that Bert Nash is taking the lead,” Sebelius, who also formerly served as U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama, told Bert Nash staff Friday morning. “The kind of care you’ve been delivering, the kind of services that you all have as your core mission, the kind of work you do every day will now be able to be modeled in centers across the state.”

Howard, for her part, called the designation “the most transformational change in mental health and behavioral health services” she’s seen in her career.

In fact, she said it may even be hard to grasp its full impact quite yet. Howard said the designation “brings hope” in the face of challenges like rising suicide rates and the menace of fentanyl and allows Bert Nash to be a leader in behavioral health care in Lawrence.

“The certification is not just a recognition of the hard work and dedication of Bert Nash to get here — it’s also a commitment by them,” Howard said. “…It is a commitment to this community to offer care that is person-centered, to offer care that is trauma-informed, to offer recovery supports.”