Kinixu reports expanded behavioral health services; NAMI launches Sand Creek day program

Dr. Joe Wasif, director of behavioral health at Kinixu Community Health, told the Bonner County Board of Commissioners the clinic has expanded outpatient and school-based services and grown the number of patients served by about 65 percent year over year.

The update mattered, Wasif said, because local mental-health capacity affects the county’s jail, emergency medical services and broader community well-being. "In comparison to 02/2023, in 02/2024, our total patients served in the behavioral health department went up 65 percent to a total of 555 patients served in that year," he said.

Wasif said Kinixu purchased a two-story building on Baldy Mountain Road to concentrate behavioral-health services, has hired its 11th mental-health therapist, and added school-based therapists serving Boundary and Bonner County secondary and elementary schools and LPOSD. He said Kinixu has two psychiatric providers and hopes to add a third this summer, and that case management, peer support and a substance-abuse provider serve both Priest River and Sandpoint clinics.

Wasif described partnerships that extend care beyond clinic walls. He said Kinixu recently began placing a therapist at the county jail on referral, with the goal of continuing care after release. "We've finally started sending a therapist out at requests, based on the referrals that we receive, to provide care for folks that are incarcerated," he said.

Wasif gave a breakdown of the clinic’s expanded caseload: Medicaid patients up 52 percent, Medicare up 21 percent and self-pay clients up 89 percent; he also said targeted outreach raised service for children ages 3–10 by about 40 percent.

During questions, Wayne Martin, a Bonner County resident, asked whether Kinixu provides inpatient care. Wasif said Kinixu does not offer inpatient services now and that intensive outpatient services are a future possibility but not yet planned: "It's such an important service that I don't want to launch something and have it wax and wane … but that is a hope," he said.

Dawn Mara, working with NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), said NAMI has launched Sand Creek Connections, a nonclinical outpatient day program intended to help people recovering from chronic depression, PTSD and related conditions. Mara said Sand Creek Connections is free for members, is peer-run, already has 26 members, and plans to provide transportation to serve Bonner and Boundary counties. "We just launched a nonclinical outpatient facility that is free to members and lifetime for people that are trying to rehabilitate their chronic depression," she said.

Wasif added that Kinixu has posted a position for a same-day access clinic to assess and connect patients to care in a single visit, but said that program is not open to the public yet.

The commissioners did not take action on the update; they received the presentation and moved on to other agenda items.

Looking ahead, Wasif and Mara encouraged community partners to refer people who need school-based services, same-day outpatient care or nonclinical day rehabilitation.