![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_7990-437x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
photo by: Josie Heimsoth\/Journal-World<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, is pictured Tuesday, February 25, 2025. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
Leaders of Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center are hoping that the Douglas County Commission will provide about $1.7 million in new funding to help cover the nonprofit\u2019s 2025 losses. <\/p>\n
But even if that unbudgeted funding materializes \u2014 which is far from a certainty \u2014 Bert Nash will still have a $900,000 deficit for this year, the organization\u2019s financial committee was told on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not getting any less expensive to provide the level of care that we provide,\u201d Lexie Fager, finance manager at Bert Nash, said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a cost savings from what we had originally drafted up in our budget from some of the staff cuts that we\u2019ve made \u2026 But overall, there are some areas I will say that I think that we can still shrink back. We have already looked into multiple contracts and expenses. We are trying to do without as much as we possibly can.\u201d <\/p>\n
As the Journal-World reported<\/a>, Bert Nash has been struggling financially for several months now. In May, Bert Nash cut around 30 employees, and other select employees had taken pay cuts. This means the organization stands today around the same size as it was last year. <\/p>\n How further cuts in 2025 might impact the organization and the clients that rely on it for mental health services wasn\u2019t clear at Wednesday\u2019s meeting. But its new leader said all sorts of expense savings are being examined. <\/p>\n \u201cI think this is an opportunity for us to really be open and honest with ourselves about every one of these line items,\u201d interim CEO Kirsten Watkins said. \u201cI was even looking at the postage line and having conversations with people about that.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Bert Nash\u2019s budget for 2025, the organization is currently facing a loss of about $2.6 million without the county\u2019s help. The requests submitted to the county earlier this year asked for $500,000 in gap funding to address the challenges to its behavioral health services, specifically outpatient therapy services, with another request totaling $1.2 million to continue operating the Treatment & Recovery Center at the current level for 2026. <\/p>\n \u201cThe county has approved $6.2 million in funding (for 2025),\u201d Fager said. \u201cHowever, we requested $1.2 million for the TRC and $500,000 for uninsured services, so if we do not get them, we\u2019ll get $6.2 million. And if we were to get them, it would look more about $7.9 million.\u201d <\/p>\n There was also a request for $604,305 sent to county commissioners to address gap funding in services at the Treatment & Recovery Center, but that was not accounted for in Bert Nash\u2019s final 2025 budget scenarios. The Journal-World reached out to Bert Nash staff about why this funding request was not included. On Wednesday evening, Bert Nash responded with a statement that said, \u201cAt this time, the budget has been presented to our Finance Committee and is still undergoing review.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it has not yet been formally approved by our Governing Board of Directors, we\u2019re not in a position to share specific details,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n But even in the best-case scenario, if the county approves additional funding requests in 2026, Bert Nash would still need to identify a way to cover the remaining $982,365 shortfall. Regardless of the outcome, reductions in funding for specific services or other areas of the organization will be necessary.<\/p>\n Matthew Herbert, chair of the Bert Nash governing board, told committee members at the meeting that the organization was still paying 90 days of severance funding to former CEO Patrick Schmitz, who resigned at the end of June.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cHe was the highest paid employee at Bert Nash, so that\u2019s going to be a significant severance chunk,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cAnd in addition to that, his 15% voluntary pay deduction that he took apparently ceased to exist at his point of resignation. So we\u2019re actually paying his severance at his full salary for 90 days.\u201d <\/p>\n While Bert Nash is looking to the county for any additional funding to offset the shortfall for 2025, that funding is far from certain. Douglas County commissioners concluded 2026 budget deliberations last week<\/a> and did not express an interest in awarding funding for the additional gap funding requests to make up the organization\u2019s loss for this year. <\/p>\n