photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center is pictured Tuesday, February 25, 2025.

Story updated at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday, May 21:

Facing the possibility of a multimillion-dollar operating loss for 2025, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center announced Wednesday that it will be eliminating about 6% to 8% of positions across its workforce and implementing “temporary” salary reductions for employees.

The news was announced in an email from Bert Nash on Wednesday, in which the nonprofit said its financial situation had reached a “point of financial exigency” that required “immediate action.”

In a fact sheet included with the email, Bert Nash did not specify which positions were going to be eliminated or how long the pay cuts would last, but it did say that the pay cuts would apply to “non-bargaining-unit” employees and would range from 2% to 15%, with senior leadership facing the highest cuts.

For patients, the fact sheet said, there may be changes to department structures, service hours and eligibility for financial assistance programs, but it did not elaborate further on what kinds of changes might occur.

Emily Farley, Bert Nash’s chief advancement officer, said in the email that it was a “difficult day” for the nonprofit.

“Nearly every area of the Bert Nash Center will be affected, and we will be saying goodbye to valued colleagues across the organization,” she wrote.

At the County Commission meeting on Wednesday, Commissioner Gene Dorsey said in a prepared statement that “this is a community crisis.”

“The center has exhausted its financial resources and now faces a critical moment where its future sustainability is at risk,” Dorsey said.

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The problem facing Bert Nash, as the nonprofit said in the announcement and has said in the past, is not a lack of demand for its services, but rather that it is providing care to more uninsured and underinsured people than in past years. The fact sheet said that Bert Nash’s operating loss for 2024 was estimated at $576,000, pending the completion of an annual audit, and that based on the nonprofit’s current budget, the projected operating loss for 2025 would be $3 million.

Farley said in the email that 28% of Bert Nash’s clients, or around 700 people per month, don’t have insurance, and caring for the uninsured cost Bert Nash about $8.85 million in 2024.

Bert Nash says it has already made some changes to vacant and prospective positions and asked for more government funding, but that it hasn’t been enough.

The fact sheet said that early in the year, Bert Nash eliminated 65% of its open positions, which saved $2.5 million, and scrapped 90% of its proposed new positions, saving $1.5 million. It also said that in the last three months, Bert Nash left 16 open positions unfilled. And last fall, Bert Nash asked the state of Kansas for $998,000 to cover the costs of caring for patients who can’t pay, but ultimately received only $100,000.

“Despite these efforts,” the fact sheet said, “it is no longer financially viable to maintain our current service model without further changes.”

The fact sheet, which described itself as a “high-level overview,” did not provide many specifics about the types of positions that would be eliminated, but it did go into more detail about the salary reductions. It said that the senior leadership would take a 15% pay cut, program managers and directors would see a 6% cut, program supervisors would see a 5% cut, and all other affected employees would face a 2% cut. The fact sheet said Bert Nash would also be offering a voluntary early retirement program.

Much of Bert Nash’s government funding comes from Douglas County, and Bert Nash came to county commissioners in February to speak about its 2025 financial outlook. At that time, it was anticipating a $1.5 million shortfall, half as much as the $3 million that its fact sheet projected on Wednesday. Bert Nash CEO Patrick Schmitz also said in February that the center wasn’t predicting any layoffs at that time for 2025, as the Journal-World reported.

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At Wednesday’s commission meeting, Dorsey said he thought help could not wait until the start of the budget cycle for 2026, and he urged his fellow commissioners to consider discussing assistance for Bert Nash as early as next week.

Specifically, Dorsey said that the county should revise its lease agreement with Bert Nash for the Treatment & Recovery Center of Douglas County, which Bert Nash operates, and reduce its rent. He also added that the operating agreement for the TRC limits the county’s funding support for the center to just under $1.6 million for the first year of the contract. He proposed that the county should “lift the contractual maximum to cover the actual losses at the TRC … and provide funds for indigent care.”

Dorsey also wanted to discuss how the money in the county’s Mental Health Services fund is being used. This fund, approved in 2018, has been used for behavioral health services and facilities and has primarily gone toward the TRC. In 2024, the county ended the year with an $18.4 million fund balance in this fund, according to county budget documents, and Dorsey wanted to know whether some of these funds can be used to help ease the shortfall at Bert Nash.

Commissioner Patrick Kelly, however, was not so comfortable with considering aid for Bert Nash immediately. He said that the plan for how the mental health funding will be used is normally discussed during the budget process, and it’s important to consider the other organizations that rely on the fund and “all the stressors that are happening for all the community partners.”

“I am a little nervous about creating a request essentially more than a month before our budget process from a longtime community partner that’s aware of how we do our budget requests,” Kelly said. “I want to make sure that we follow a process.”

Kelly also said that the commissioners demanding that Bert Nash comes to talk with them about its financial situation doesn’t sit well with him.

“That changes that partnership relationship significantly if we start saying it’s our responsibility to make sure that their doors don’t close,” Kelly said. “I think if there are questions, that’s a good conversation to have with the board and their leadership, but I want to make sure that they stay a partner in this space.”

As of Wednesday’s meeting, the commission had not scheduled any emergency discussion with Bert Nash, but county staff is planning a more in-depth discussion on the use and history of the mental health funds during the commission’s June 11 meeting.