Saving lives and improving public safety: Council Budget Committee recommends funding for mentally ill and drug dependent

Final public hearing and vote set for Tuesday

The King County Council’s Operating Budget, Fiscal Management and Mental Health Committee today forwarded legislation to the Council recommending approval of the one-tenth of one cent sales tax authorized by the state legislature and proposed by the County Executive.

The measure will fund implementation of King County’s Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan – the strategies and programs designed to divert people suffering from mental illness and chemical dependency away from jails and emergency rooms and get them into proper treatment.

“The impacts of mental illness and chemical dependency touch our entire community,” said Councilmember Bob Ferguson, Operating Budget Committee chair and prime sponsor of the legislation. “This investment provides support for the forgotten and marginalized in our society.”

The Council amended the Executive’s proposed legislation, adding a policy framework designed to provide increased accountability and oversight for the revenue collected by the tax. The Council also added an expiration date for the sales tax of January 1, 2017.

A final public hearing on the proposal is set for Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 1:30 p.m., in the King County Council chambers on the 10^th floor of the King County Courthouse. The Council is expected to vote Tuesday on the ordinance enacting the funding measure following the hearing. The sales tax could start as early as April 1, 2008, and would generate approximately $54 million annually for programs serving the mentally ill and chemically dependent in King County.

“This is the most comprehensive plan in decades to deal compassionately with frail and vulnerable populations and their families,” said Councilmember Jane Hague, chair of the Operating Budget Panel. “Those needs have gone unaddressed by state and federal governments. With this legislation, we are meeting those needs.”

“As chair of the task force that recommended this tax, this legislation will serve both those in need of mental health services and those that provide the services,” said Council Chair Larry Gossett. “It’s a new beginning for individuals who have spent time in jail instead of in treatment and a new beginning for those who have been looking for help battling mental illness and chemical dependency. The programs — and the money to fund those programs — are on their way.”

“Today we voted to end the suffering that families experience because of mental illness,” said Councilmember Julia Patterson, chair of the King County Board of Health. “No more pushing mental illness under the rug by housing our ill in jails, dark doorways, under bridges, and in homeless shelters. Addressing mental illness directly is long overdue and I look forward to the many positive changes resulting from this legislation.”

“Providing meaningful help for people suffering from mental illness is at the heart of our action today,” said Councilmember Larry Phillips. “With the state having abandoned mental health treatment funding for community-oriented treatment, King County’s funding is a last stopgap to keep those with mental illness out of our jails and off our streets. This plan also helps the dedicated individuals who work in mental health services earn enough to stay in the profession and to support their families.”

The programs and strategies funded by the Action Plan will create a full continuum of treatment, housing and case management services to promote recovery for persons with disabling mental illness or chemical dependency. Public safety is enhanced by reducing the motivation for common crimes such as car theft and ID theft and holding offenders accountable for their actions. These programs seek to prevent and reduce chronic homelessness and unnecessary involvement in the criminal justice and emergency medical systems by:

• Giving people in crisis a safe place to rest: creating a crisis diversion center where police, doctors and family can take individuals who are having a crisis, but aren’t breaking the law or are having a medical crisis.
• Keeping kids alive: providing suicide prevention grants to 19 school districts in King County to raise suicide awareness in kids, help schools develop policies, train teachers and educate parents.
• Expanding crisis outreach for children and youth: creating a reception center for children and youth to give parents, doctors and police an option other than jail or the hospital for kids undergoing a mental health or substance abuse event but who don’t need medical attention.
• Helping people return to communities as they leave jail or the hospital: assisting the mentally ill or chemically dependent to transition out of a facility, finding them a treatment provider, helping them get their medicine, and helping them find a place to live.
• Training police to help people who are having a mental health or substance abuse related crisis: providing crisis intervention training for police and other first responders to help them keep an event from escalating to the point where someone is injured or jailed.

The Operating Budget Committee today added a legislative policy framework to the funding proposal to ensure accountability, by requiring a three-part oversight, implementation, and evaluation plan:

• An oversight group to provide ongoing oversight of the Action Plan, with representation from other county, state and community agencies and entities involved in the mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault, homeless, justice, public health and hospital systems. The oversight plan shall be submitted to the County Council by April 1, 2008.
• An implementation plan to be developed in collaboration with the oversight group and delivered to the Council by June 1, 2008.
• An evaluation plan that includes performance measurements and data collection for reporting and evaluations, to be submitted to the Council by August 1, 2008.

Jail administrators, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, client advocates and hospital officials have joined at past public meetings to advocate for the Action Plan.

Public health and mental health care were consistently cited as top priorities by participants in the Council’s extensive Citizen Engagement initiative earlier this year. When asked about public health in forums held to determine the public’s priorities for the King County budget, a majority singled out drug and substance abuse treatment as a top priority for funding, with mental health care a strongly voiced and recurring concern.

A standing room audience of more than 400 spoke with one voice at the Council’s June 25 Town Hall in Shoreline, as speaker after speaker called on the Councilmembers to support funding for treatment for mental health and chemical dependency.

More than 600 people attended four public hearings over the past two weeks on the 2008 King County Budget, with many testifying in support of funding for the Action Plan.

The Action Plan is the result of a systematic, year-long process that involved the County, mental health and substance abuse experts, service providers and the justice system to integrate existing services and resources, make changes in the processing of criminal cases, and develop appropriate service and housing options. It has been endorsed by elected leaders and criminal justice administrators from across King County.

In 2005, the Washington State Legislature provided counties with the authority to enact a one-tenth of one cent sales tax to fund new or expanded mental health and substance abuse treatment services as well as therapeutic courts. Since then, county councils in seven counties have enacted that option: Spokane, Skagit, Island, Clark, Clallam, Jefferson and Okanogan counties.