A federal judge is set to hear arguments Portland this week from mental health advocates who say the state is failing dozens of criminal defendants in need of treatment. Continue Reading Federal Judge To Hear Arguments Read More
Civil commitments have been appealed so many times that the legal standard has gradually become harder and harder to meet. “Just because we have a mental illness and we’re symptomatic doesn’t mean we’re stupid or drooling on ourselves... We’re able to understand, if we’re before a judge, that I may lose my liberty,” Read More
Some psychiatric patients are spending not just hours in the emergency room, but days or a week. They're living there in the ER because there is nowhere else to send them. Northwest policymakers are now making it a priority to create more treatment capacity for people in mental health and addiction crises. Read More
The enforcement action this week by the Washington Department of Labor and Industries follows a months-long investigation triggered by three violent patient-on-nurse assaults last year at Western State Hospital in Lakewood. Read More
Nearly three years after the state of Illinois agreed in a court settlement to revamp mental health care in prisons and provide better treatment, a judge says the care remains "grossly insufficient." Continue Reading Most Inmates With Mental Illness Read More
Warning that Washington state is at a "tipping point," Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday delivered a State of the State address that called on lawmakers to address carbon pollution, "transform" the mental health system and save Puget Sound orcas. Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is taking the first step toward a plan to help house and treat psychiatric patients who have been involved in the criminal justice system: a new, 500-bed state mental hospital. Continue Reading Read More
Ranchers and farmers living in the Mountain West are vulnerable to all kinds of things—drought, fluctuating crop prices, trade wars—and in part because of those things - depression and suicide. But there's some help out there, from an unlikely source: Twitter. Read More
In the wake of three serious patient-on-staff assaults, more than 150 nurses at Washington's Western State Hospital have signed a "no-confidence" letter calling for the replacement of the psychiatric hospital's chief nursing officer Karen Pitman and her deputies. Read More
A Washington state senator who says he’s heard from “literally hundreds of parents” of adult children who are struggling with mental illness or addiction wants to allow families to petition for temporary guardianship. Read More
More than 80 people gathered at the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They were there for a forum organized by a fledgling group of moms whose severely mentally ill children have struggled to get the help they need in Washington state — sometimes with deadly consequences. Read More
Despite a two year turnaround effort, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Monday that it will strip Washington’s Western State Hospital of federal certification for failing to comply with standards. Read More
Last week, federal inspectors found serious safety violations at Western State Hospital that could put patients at risk of suicide. They spent several days at Western State looking for full compliance with federal standards. Now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has accepted the hospital’s immediate plan to address the suicide risk issues. Read More
Federal inspectors have found serious safety violations at Western State Hospital that could increase the chances of patient suicides. The finding this week has the potential to further imperil $65 million in annual federal funding the state receives to operate the 857-bed psychiatric hospital near Tacoma. Read More
On any given day, nearly half the civil, or non-criminal, patients at Western State are ready to be discharged, but there's nowhere to send them. That means they take up beds that patients in crisis, like Brian's daughter, may desperately need. In other words, there's a waitlist to get into Western State because there's a waitlist to get out. Read More
Larry and his wife Crystal used Joel’s Law to get their adult son involuntarily committed to a mental health facility earlier this year. AUSTIN JENKINS / NORTHWEST NEWS NETWORK Listen In the living room of her Olympia home, Crystal opens up a large file box that contains her son’s life history. “As a mom you… Read More
Denise Vermillion petitioned to have her stepson involuntarily committed under Joel’s Law. AUSTIN JENKINS / NORTHWEST NEWS NETWORK Listen On a recent Wednesday morning, Denise Vermillion stood outside the Thurston County Courthouse and expressed the frustration that had been building inside her for days. “I have a loved one who’s having some mental issues and… Read More
In 2014 and 2015, Washington's prison system experienced a spike in inmate suicides. During those two years 11 inmate deaths were ruled suicides, giving Washington one of the highest prison suicide rates in the country. Austin Jenkins has spent the past year investigating how this happened and how the prison system responded. Read More
