Kevin Osten-Garner, Psy.D., Executive Director and Chief Psychologist of Adler Community Health Services, has been appointed to the Southern Regional Behavioral Health Policy Board by the Governor of Nevada.
The Southern Regional Behavioral Health Policy Board is one of five distinct regional boards in Nevada. The Board is composed of community leaders, health care and treatment providers, law enforcement, and others who facilitate collaboration focused on improving the behavioral health system in Nevada by developing a shared understanding of the behavioral health issues facing each region and allowing for more effective planning across the state.
Osten-Garner has been appointed for a two-year term to Seat 5 by Governor Sisolak, a position held for board members that have extensive experience in the delivery of social services in the field of behavioral health.
“I want to thank Governor Sisolak for the honor to serve the residents in rural and frontier southern Nevada counties,” Osten-Garner said. “I look forward to elevating the solutions designed by the community to decision and policy makers in Nevada and the federal government.”
Osten-Garner’s extensive portfolio includes clinical and organizational leadership across Adler University’s three campuses, the Center for Civic Learning and Community Action, and the Center for Adlerian Practice and Scholarship, and community leadership in health care reform and community engagement. This opportunity will allow him to advocate for equitable behavioral health policies in the community as a socially responsible practitioner.
“Economically disinvested rural and urban communities need their perspective and solutions to be the most central, heard, and understood at the policy table,” Osten-Garner shared. “They need policymakers to understand and respect their strengths, resiliency, and culture while evaluating their suffering through failures of systems, not individuals.”