Bridging the Gaps in our Mental Health System

Bridging the Gaps in our Mental Health System

+ What is missing in our current mental health system?

+ How will the recently approved King County Crisis Centers Levy fit into the equation?

+ What else is needed to successfully support our region’s mental health?

Participants collaborated across disciplines to complete a visual exercise that inspired discussion about challenges in our current system and strategies to make systematic improvements to connect and bridge those gaps.

+ Enhance preventative care in schools and communities

+ Activate diversion programs and develop alternatives to jail

+ Create federal licensure and facility standards

+ Expand supportive services to be available immediately after the first diagnosis

+ Develop systems to tackle houselessness

Panelists Include:

+ Margie Balfour, MD, Ph.D.; Psychiatrist and Chief of Quality & Clinical Innovation, Connections Health Solutions

+ Rebecca Chamaa, Speaker for NAMI of California In our Own Voice program, lived experience with chronic schizophrenia

+ Carl Hampson, Principal, and Architect, SRG Partnership

+ Charity Holmes, Assistant Administrator of Behavioral Health Services, UWMC

+ Anna Nepomuceno, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, NAMI of Washington

“A crisis system is not just a single crisis program. Training police to respond with crisis response teams is one piece, but you need a whole system with someone to call, the appropriate clinicians to respond, and a place to go to receive treatment. That continuum isn’t available across a lot of this country.”