Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Mental Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County proclaims Recovery Month; Pawnee Mental Health highlights services, $139,000 grant for integrated primary care
Summary
The commissioners approved proclamations marking September as Recovery Month and a construction-industry mental health day, and heard from Pawnee Mental Health Services about local recovery programs and a $139,000 grant to add integrated primary care in Manhattan.
The county commissioners voted to proclaim September 2025 as Recovery Month and approved a separate proclamation recognizing a mental-health-in-construction initiative.
At the meeting, representatives from Pawnee Mental Health Services described recovery and crisis-response work across their 10-county service area and announced a $139,000 grant to support an integrated primary care program at Pawnee’s Claflin office in Manhattan. A Pawnee representative said the grant will "support the purchase of equipment and furniture for our integrated primary care program, which will provide primary care services at our Claflin office in Manhattan." The commissioners approved the recovery-month proclamation by voice vote.
Why it matters: County officials said the proclamations and Pawnee’s grant are intended to raise local awareness of substance-use and mental-health treatment and connect people to services. Pawnee staff emphasized the continuing demand for behavioral-health services and the link between substance use and suicide prevention work during September’s awareness observances.
During a presentation, a Pawnee speaker described the agency’s recovery services and community programs, including an annual fundraising and awareness event and multiple certification visits that keep the clinic’s programs in compliance. The speaker said Pawnee serves a region of "over a 180,000 people" and noted recent relicensing visits and upcoming KDADS visits September 17–19.
Recovery services manager Eric Martin described the agency’s mix of clinical staff and peer-support workers, the sober-living house that "houses about 5 men" in transition, and the agency’s work with court-ordered clients. Martin said roughly "about 70 percent are court ordered," and that, in many cases, people who begin treatment under court supervision go on to secure housing and employment.
The commissioners signed two proclamations on voice votes: one proclaiming September as Recovery Month and one supporting the construction-industry mental-health observance and a local mental-health event scheduled for Sept. 12. Pawnee staff thanked the board for the county’s support and for public recognition of recovery and prevention efforts.
The presentation and proclamations included these on-the-record comments from Pawnee staff: "This is Bonnie's annual signature event" and "we have therapists who, work diligently with clients, kind of on the therapeutic side of of treatment." Those quotes are taken verbatim from the meeting record.
Looking ahead: Pawnee said it will expand integrated primary care availability to people across its 10-county service area once the Claflin site is equipped; the agency also noted ongoing certification work and public outreach events scheduled in the fall.
