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Douglas County proclaims May 2025 Mental Health Month; Burton Ash Center highlights youth crisis work and plans for youth recovery center
Summary
The Board of Douglas County Commissioners adopted a proclamation recognizing Mental Health Month and heard a presentation from a representative of the Burton Ash Community Mental Health Center on the agency's services, recent activity and plans for a Judge Jean Shepherd Youth Recovery Center focused on youth psychiatric crises.
The Douglas County Board of Commissioners on May 14 adopted a proclamation recognizing May 2025 as Mental Health Month in Douglas County and heard a presentation from the Burton Ash Community Mental Health Center about local behavioral-health activity and needs.
The proclamation cited U.S. Surgeon General guidance and national observances and "call[ed] upon all citizens, government agencies, public and private institutions, businesses, and schools to recommit our community to increasing awareness and understanding of mental illness and the need for appropriate and accessible services for all people with mental illness," and the board recorded the proclamation as adopted May 2025.
A Burton Ash representative, identified in the meeting as Patrick Schmidt, summarized the center's 2024 statistics and current challenges. He said "the treatment and recovery center team served 1,582 individuals in 2024." He added that the treatment-and-recovery center had a 99.9% acceptance rate for referrals and a 98% successful transition-to-community figure. The Burton Ash mobile response team intervened in 743 community crises last year, a reported 80% increase over 2023, and staff followed up with post-crisis outreach for 1,272 community interventions.
Schmidt said the agency is developing a Judge Jean Shepherd Youth Recovery Center "the first facility of its kind in Kansas dedicated to saving young lives and healing families" to address a growing local need for emergency psychiatric care for young people. He also said a significant share of clients face coverage gaps: "Last month, 27 percent of our clients, a total of 696 individuals, were among the 240,000 Kansans who lack health insurance." He said the organization is expanding services and partnerships, including work with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health and coordination for care-court and care coordination.
The presentation concluded with the center leaving commissioners a printed 2024 annual report and an invitation for further partnership as the recovery center and other initiatives move forward. The proclamation and presentation were informational; no formal county funding decision was made at the meeting.
