Tag Archives: mental health

Garfield High School receives $500K mental health services funding boost from city

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Garfield High School, the largest public high school serving Capitol Hill and the Central District, has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the city’s Department of Education and Early Learning to bolster the 23rd Ave campus’s mental health services.

The school says the funding will help add an additional full-time mental health professional based at the Garfield Teen Health Center operated by Seattle Children’s/Odessa Brown Clinic. As part of the grand, University of Washington doctoral students in psychiatry will also do field work at Garfield and a staff member from the Urban League will help manage and coordinate the new resources. Continue reading →

Seattle Police begin city’s crackdown on public drug use with reported arrests, 13 ‘referred to the case managers’

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The Seattle Police Department says it started enforcement of the city’s new public drug use law with “enforcement operations” in two familiar crime hot spots this weekend — Little Saigon and the downtown core around 3rd and Pine.

SPD Chief Adrian Diaz said the operations were underway in the areas ave 12th Ave and South Jackson in the International District, and on 2nd 3rd near Pike and Pine downtown.

“This is not about arresting people,” Diaz said. “We want to make sure that people are taking advantage of services. Right now, we know 13 people were referred to the case managers and that’s really what’s important to us.” Continue reading →

Mayor says Seattle’s ‘third public safety department’ ready to join police and firefighters in protecting the city with ‘welfare checks’ and help for people suffering mental crisis

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(Image: CHS)

A small, $1.5 million pilot program hoped to help be the start of bigger changes to how the city responds to mental health and drug crisis 911 calls is set to launch next month and Mayor Bruce Harrell is calling for more money so support the department behind the program next year.

Harrell marked the formation of what the administration is calling “Seattle’s third public safety department” saying the new organization will align “existing community-focused and non-police public safety investments and programs” as it joins the Seattle Police Department and Seattle Fire Department in protecting the city.

Community Assisted Response and Engagement — or, in the Harrell administration’s love for warm-sounding acronyms, CARE —  is part of the next step in what the city has been calling a “dual dispatch” approach to providing better social support and resources while freeing up police to handle higher priority calls.

Harrell says he is calling for a $6 million increase in the department’s funding as part of his proposed budget for next year.

The pilot launching in October will transition the former Community Safety and Communications Center to include the deployment of social workers and behavioral health specialists with Seattle Police Department officers for a limited set of circumstances when mental health expertise is needed and the situation is deemed safe for non-police intervention.

The launch comes amid increased criticism of Chief Adrian Diaz and skepticism around traditional policing in the city sparked by recent recorded comments from Seattle Police officers illustrating troubling biases and cynicism including the body cam video that captured a police union vice president making flippant remarks about Jaahnavi Kandula after she was struck and killed by a speeding police officer.

It also arrives as city leaders have signed the department up for a possible crackdown on public drug use in the city.

Backers hope CARE and efforts like “dual dispatch” will be the start of needed change and could help the city provide more substantial responses to the flood of so-called “welfare check” calls that come into 911 dispatchers from Capitol Hill and across the city every day.

Under the pilot, 911 calls dispatched involving someone suffering a mental crisis will include the specialists arriving with police at situations that don’t involve someone who is injured or sick, an “imminent danger,” weapons, or narcotics. Continue reading →

$1.25B Crisis Care Centers levy Proposition 1 on way to approval with King County voters

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Tuesday’s night Yes on Prop 1 party at Capitol Hill’s Bar Vacilando (Image: Alex Garland/CHS)

King County voters showed early support for a $1.25 billion behavioral health levy to create a new “regional network” of emergency mental health care centers after Tuesday’s Election Night first count of ballots.

With just over 21% turnout in the first tally, “yes” votes showed a strong 54% total. With Seattle-area elections typically swinging toward more progressive results as the ballots of younger, later voters are counted, Proposition 1 is headed for approval. Continue reading →

King County voters deciding on $1.25B Crisis Care Centers levy Proposition 1

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Ballots are out for the April election. Don’t let yours get recycled. King County voters are deciding on a $1.25 billion behavioral health levy to create a new “regional network” of emergency mental health care centers.

CHS reported on the proposal here on the April ballot measure that would go into effect in 2024 if approved and would cost median-value homeowners an estimated $121 a year over a nine year period. The levy could raise as much as $1.25 billion through 2032 to fund construction of the five crisis care centers and increase services in the county. The Seattle City Council voted in March to support the proposal from County Executive Dow Constantine and the King County Council.

In a memo (PDF) prepared on the proposal to inform the city council vote on its resolution in support of the levy, council staff said the existing Downtown Emergency Service Center is overburdened and that people experiencing a crisis often end up “either in the emergency room or booked into a jail for a minor crime, although what is needed is a safe place to meet basic needs and address the cause of the crisis.” Continue reading →

Seattle City Council to vote on support for King County Crisis Care Centers levy

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The Seattle City Council is expected to approve a resolution Tuesday in support of the King County Crisis Care Centers levy proposal slated to come before voters in April.

If approved, the levy would cost the median-value homeowner around an estimated $121 a year over a nine-year period. The levy could raise as much as $1.25 billion through 2032 to fund construction of the five crisis care centers and increase services in the county. Continue reading →

A year after murder of Capitol Hill homeless man, suspect remains in legal limbo amid state’s mental health backlog

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A year since prosecutors say he beat Brent Wood to death along E Olive Way behind the Broadway Rite Aid in the middle of an early March night, Alexander Jay remains in legal limbo in King County Jail even though the court says he needs mental health treatment at a state facility to understand what he is charged with and be part of his legal defense.

CHS reported here on the charges against Jay for the March 2022 murder of the 31-year-old Wood on Capitol Hill. Police said Jay was in custody since his arrest for an attack of a woman at Capitol Hill Station when he was identified as the Wood murder suspect. Detectives believe Jay killed Wood the next day after assaulting the woman in a 10-day string of violence that ended with his arrest for the assault. In between, police believe he also attacked a woman at a bus stop, stabbing her multiple times.

Jay has been jailed since on more than $5 million bail.

In September after a mental health evaluation at King County Jail, Jay was found unfit for trial and ordered to be restored to competency through 90 days of treatment from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. His defense, prosecutors, and the court are still waiting. Continue reading →

‘Dual dispatch’ — Seattle’s test of deploying mental health helpers along with cops part of larger overhaul of SPD 911 dispatching

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The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee Tuesday is being briefed on the effort to upgrade the 911 emergency dispatch system in the city including incorporating a new pilot program that deploys social workers and behavioral health specialists with Seattle Police officers for a limited set of circumstances when mental health expertise is needed and the situation is deemed safe for non-police intervention.

The new $1.5 million “dual dispatch” program will begin a process of dispatching “civilian staff to augment the current response to 911 calls with a mental/behavioral health nexus,” the city said, “strengthening our public safety network by diversifying our 911 response options.” Continue reading →

King County voters to decide on Crisis Care Centers Levy in April

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The King County Council voted Tuesday to send a $1.25 billion behavioral health levy to create a new “regional network” of emergency mental health care centers to voters in an April special election ballot.

CHS reported here in September on King County Executive Dow Constantine’s proposal for an April ballot measure that would go into effect in 2024 if approved and would cost the median-value homeowner around an estimated $121 a year over a nine year period. The levy could raise as much as $1.25 billion through 2032 to fund construction of the five crisis care centers and increase services in the county. Continue reading →

Vote on King County Crisis Care Centers levy shaping up for April

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You can almost sympathize with Seattle property owners. Without more robust revenue at the state level, King County and cities like Seattle are left to fund much needed services and resources through some of the few funding sources they can access. Wednesday morning, the Seattle City Council’s Finance and Housing Committee is hearing a briefing on efforts to create a new “regional network” of emergency mental health care centers with a new property tax levy to power the plan to create the five centers.

“The levy would create behavioral health crisis care centers – somewhere for people to go when they urgently need help – which our region currently lacks,” a council brief sent to media reads.

CHS reported here in September on King County Executive Dow Constantine’s proposal for an April ballot measure that would go into effect in 2024 if approved and would cost the median-value homeowner around an estimated $121 a year for nine years. The levy could raise as much as $1.25 billion through 2032 to fund construction of the five crisis care centers and increase services in the county.

In Wednesday’s presentation (PDF) from county Department of Community and Human Services director Leo Flor, officials make the case that “Families and People in Crisis” need “places to go for help instead of waiting for a crisis to occur or get worse” while law enforcement and first responders “need better, more equitable, and faster options than jail and emergency rooms.” Continue reading →