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Providers Seek to Close Gaps in Kansas Mental Health System

Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, is scheduled to address a legislative committee meeting Thursday. Photo by KHI News Service.
Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, is scheduled to address a legislative committee meeting Thursday. Photo by KHI News Service.

Kansas mental health providers are proposing ways to close what they say are growing gaps in the state’s mental health system. Kyle Kessler heads the state association of community mental health centers. He’s scheduled a meeting at the Kansas Statehouse today (THUR) to outline the group’s proposals to lawmakers. 


Providers want Governor Sam Brownback and lawmakers to establish a network of centers to stabilize people in crisis who might otherwise end up in state hospitals, emergency rooms or jails. There are currently two such centers, one in Kansas City and one in Wichita. Mental health advocates say crisis centers are also needed in northeast, southeast and western Kansas.

Read more on this story at the KHI News Service website.

Jim McLean, Executive Editor of KHI News Service, oversees the KHI News Service. From 2005 until 2013, McLean coordinated all communications activities at KHI as Vice President for Public Affairs. The position he now occupies was created as part of a strategic initiative to solidify the editorial and operational independence of the KHI News Service. Prior to coming to KHI, McLean had a distinguished career as a journalist, serving as the news director and Statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio and a managing editor for the Topeka Capital-Journal. During his more than 20 years in Kansas journalism, McLean won numerous awards for journalistic excellence from the Kansas Press Association, regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. In 1997, McLean and two Capital-Journal colleagues received the Burton W. Marvin News Enterprise Award from the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism for a series of stories on the state’s business climate. McLean holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washburn University.