By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW —After 33 years, Kurt Carlson is retiring as Bowen Center’s president and CEO.

And those who know and have worked with him say he’s leaving quite a legacy behind.

Carlson’s family, Bowen staff and community members celebrated Carlson’s retirement at an open house at The VIC at One Ten Craft Meatery in Warsaw on Saturday, May 21.

Among those present was Dr. Rob Ryan, who’s set to replace Carlson as president and CEO on July 1. He cited Carlson’s hard-working nature.

“He always has put Bowen Center first,” said Ryan. “I think somebody who runs a company or is a leader has to do what they ask their people to do. We have tough jobs, working with people with mental illness has its challenges. The world in a lot of ways doesn’t value that job. You don’t get paid a lot to do that; you don’t often get support for that. But to him, that’s never mattered, and so if it means long hours or doing a tough job, he’s the first to do it. … And so I’ve certainly tried to adopt that, so the first one into the office and the last one to leave.”

Ryan also said Carlson was passionate about Bowen’s clients.

“Mental illness is one of those things that has touched most all of our lives, but it certainly has his as mine and so when we see a person with mental illness, we see a family member or a loved one, not somebody who needs our charity,” said Ryan. “(We see) somebody that has value regardless of whether or not they get help. I think that’s the other thing, just the humanity of what Kurt brings to things. … I think that’s something that’s impressive.”

He added that Carlson has taught him to “leave (something) better than you found it,” explaining that practice goes further than just paying it forward.

Dr. Miky Kaushal serves as child psychiatrist at Bowen.

“(I’m) very inspired by Kurt Carlson, and what he’s done with Bowen over these 30-plus years is phenomenal,” he said. “Community psychiatry, really making sure that patients stay active in the community and get them out of institutions, get them involved (with) skills coaches, therapists. … He’s a true inspiration for that. That’s the reason I’m here, pretty much.”

Kosciusko County Councilwoman Kim Cates said, “We are so blessed to have Kurt working with the Bowen Center and the county.”

The medical director of the Bowen Recovery Center in Fort Wayne, Dr. Carolyn Warner-Greer, also shared her thoughts with InkFreeNews on Carlson. The center distributes methadone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction.

“I think Kurt’s last big, huge project for the Bowen Center was starting an opioid treatment program,” she said. “We had to have a response to (the opioid) crisis.”

That was started in June 2018. Warner-Greer noted for a time she drove for several hours each day to work at the center “because I saw what he wanted to do.”

“And then it’s just … we are probably one of the best opioid treatment programs in the state. … I walk around and I look and I’m like Kurt said we had to have that, Kurt said we had to have that. … This is Kurt’s vision, and he is just a scholar in so many things, but especially in addiction recovery.”

She added that Carlson’s retirement open house was “a sad day for the Bowen Center (but) it’s also really exciting because of all the things he’s put into place or are now coming to fruition.”

Looking back and forward

Carlson’s start at Bowen was a bit rough, he said.

He’d been conducting mental health presentations on behalf of the state before working at Bowen.

“Well, unbeknownst to me, the Bowen Center over here was going bankrupt, and so the board finally just had enough and they terminated the CEO,” he said. “Well the Division of Mental Health again unbeknownst to me heard about it and contacted them and said, ‘You need to reach out to this Carlson guy. He might be a good answer for you.'”

Bowen choose to hire him from a number of candidates.

He said he “realized how bad things were” when he was getting ready to start and a number of staff abruptly quit at a meeting where Bowen’s board put off allowing the head of medical staff to speak. He also said at that same meeting one staff member detailed Bowen’s struggle with accreditation.

Carlson also had to convince bankers shortly thereafter to grant Bowen a loan so it would have funds to pay its employees.

He explained that Bowen at the time had been mainly reliant on grant funding, and he was able to shift Bowen toward service fees.

“We just needed to make sure the staff were productive, we (got) the bills out the door and we (collected) the money to pay the bills,” he said. “It took two and half years to do that and we’ve been growing ever since.”

Bowen has grown under Carlson’s leadership from fewer than 100 employees in 1989 to 1,300-1,400 now. Its reach extends from its original focus area of five counties to a presence in around 30, and it is the largest community mental health center in the state.

One of Carlson’s more recent projects with Bowen has been working on the shift towards integrated care, or dealing with people’s physical and mental health needs in tandem.

In fall 2020, Bowen celebrated the opening of its health clinic in Warsaw for that purpose.

“Lately my job has been to acquire real estate in strategic locations in our five core counties (Kosciusko, Whitley, Huntington, Wabash and Marshall),” Carlson said regarding getting more property to expand more into integrated care.

Carlson said transitioning Ryan to fill his role has been a five-year process. He praised Ryan’s skill set, calling him “the right person for the job.”

Carlson said he will be in a consulting role with Bowen after retiring “probably a year or longer if they need me.”