photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Several former and current Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center employees spoke at the Douglas County Commission meeting on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.

At least two dozen people — including some who said they had recently been laid off from Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center — asked county leaders on Wednesday for support and for more transparency about the center’s financial situation.

Last week, Bert Nash announced that, as a result of an anticipated $3 million operating loss for 2025, it was eliminating about 6% to 8% of positions across its workforce and implementing “temporary” salary reductions for some employees. On Wednesday, during the Douglas County Commission’s meeting, a crowd showed up during the general public comment period to speak to the commission about the situation.

“We are not expendable,” one commenter said. “Bert Nash needs transparency and accountability. We must find a better path forward.”

Commenter MaKayla Reed, who said she was a case manager at the Treatment and Recovery Center of Douglas County, estimated that “at least 488 clients were directly affected” by the layoffs. “Providers were unable to speak with their clients to explain what was happening,” Reed said.

Many of the commenters said that either they had recently lost their jobs because of the layoffs, or they were speaking for others unable to attend the meeting. One commenter said they were a former case manager, and that the stress created by the recent situation has been unbearable. They said employees were told last Wednesday that by that Friday, they might not have a job.

“I showed up on Friday,” the former case manager said. “… I knew that could be the last day of my job, and even if I didn’t lose my job, I knew that some of my coworkers were going to lose theirs.”

The former case manager said the changes would hurt their clients, who are mainly children. They said it can be hard for children to connect with somebody, and that someone being asked to leave their job without saying goodbye to their clients is irresponsible.

Bert Nash employees were “scrambling” to cover the case loads now, they said, and employees felt they had been “treated poorly by taking some of our money from our paychecks and putting us through the stress and trauma of possibly losing our jobs.”

Taylor Noble, a former therapist at Bert Nash, read some statements that she said were from other employees. The employees described seeing their colleagues become disillusioned by Bert Nash’s operations, and some accused the center of prioritizing its income over its staff and clients.

As the Journal-World has reported, Bert Nash has repeatedly said that its financial problems stem not from demand for services, but rather from an increase in how many of its clients are uninsured and underinsured. In an email earlier this month announcing the layoffs, the center said that 28% of its clients, or around 700 people per month, don’t have insurance, and that caring for the uninsured cost Bert Nash about $8.85 million in 2024.

Some of the commenters accused the leadership of Bert Nash of prioritizing itself over its employees. Reed claimed that none of the 21 directors at Bert Nash was laid off, and accused the directors of working “to ensure their employment was safe while harming the community’s care.”

Another commenter, Mike Herreld, said unionized staff members at Bert Nash proposed a number of ideas to prevent layoffs, such as some employees seeking voluntary pay cuts or voluntarily moving to a part-time schedule. But Herreld claimed that “no such solutions were considered, mostly due to the directors.”

Some commenters were worried about the situation at the federal level, as well, including what would happen to Bert Nash if there were cuts to Medicaid.

County commissioners did not respond to the comments on Wednesday or discuss anything related to the situation at Bert Nash at all. However, at least one member of the commission has been pushing for more formal discussion about how to help the center in recent days.

As the Journal-World has reported, Commissioner Gene Dorsey believes the county should provide immediate financial assistance to Bert Nash. Dorsey made a request to commissioners last week, and was largely rebuffed by other commissioners and staff.

Last week, Dorsey told the Journal-World he would continue to seek a way to provide financial assistance during the county’s 2026 budget process. He has spoken about using money from the county’s dedicated mental health sales tax fund, which is expected to have a balance of about $18 million by the end of 2024 but has primarily been used for capital expenses related to mental health projects, rather than for covering ongoing operational costs.

Commenter Matthew Herbert urged the County Commission to pull money from the mental health sales tax fund. He said the Douglas County community would suffer a major setback in service if Bert Nash’s financial problems weren’t addressed, and that this would impact services for children such as the WRAP program, which provides school-based therapeutic services to students in Douglas County.

“I hope that potentially the behavioral health sales tax passed by the county voters may be a solution to this,” he said.