photo by: Ashley Hocking/Journal-World File Photo

This file photo from January 2018 shows a bench and mural at the second-floor entrance, where administrative offices and services for children and families are housed, at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, 200 Maine St.

Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center will soon be able to offer evidence-based substance use treatment for adolescents and transitional-age young adults — a first in Douglas County — thanks to funding from the Kansas Fights Addiction Grant Review Board.

In August, the board awarded Bert Nash $200,000 for the new program, which will provide treatment for people from age 14 to 21 who have been identified as having mental health and substance use issues. The program also includes a family and parental support component.

“The closest treatment program like this is 40 miles away, so something like this is really needed,” Ashley Countryman, Bert Nash’s director of addiction services, said in a release announcing the treatment program.

The 12-month grant covers startup costs for the new program, which will begin accepting clients by the beginning of 2024. Part of the funding will be used to purchase an evidence-based program called “The Matrix Model for Teens and Young Adults,” a 16-week outpatient program.

According to the release, Bert Nash plans to offer three sessions of the 16-week program next year, with eight to 12 members per group.