For the first time in its 40-year history, the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) will be led by a woman. On Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee named Cheryl Strange as the agency’s next secretary.Read More
The state has developed a new four phase plan for the long-term care settings. This plan is entirely separate from the four phase protocol for reopening Washington state counties.Read More
The best available science suggests that people should maintain at least six feet of distance from others to avoid contracting COVID-19 – which is believed to be spread through droplets. But practicing safe distancing is often a challenge in congregate living settings.Read More
The Spokane County Medical Examiner determined Mary Wilson, a developmentally disabled woman, died from ingesting household vinegar. The cleaning strength product, with six percent acidity, had inflamed and killed the tissue in Wilson’s esophagus, stomach and small bowel resulting in her death. Her caregiver was supposed to give her prescribed liquid ahead of a colonoscopy.Read More
The Medicaid fraud division of the Washington Attorney General’s office is conducting a criminal investigation into the death of a developmentally disabled woman who died last February in Spokane. The existence of the state’s investigation, which began in August, has not been previously reported.Read More
Currently, nearly 14,000 people who meet the Washington state's criteria as developmentally disabled are not receiving services. They’re on what’s known as the no-paid services caseload.Read More
For years, families of the developmentally disabled in Washington and their advocates have been frustrated that services in an institution, like one of the state’s Residential Habilitation Centers (RHCs), are an entitlement, but services in the community are not.Read More
Initially it was traumatizing. On the occasions when MaryAnn Brookhart would visit her brother, who was nonverbal and diagnosed with severe "mental retardation," he seemed institutionalized and "beat up." But over the years, Brookhart came to accept that the state-run Rainier School was where her Greg belonged.Read More
Not only are these patients being hospitalized unnecessarily, they’re taking up beds needed by other patients. As of Sept. 6, the state said there were 19 patients waiting for a bed at Western and Eastern State Hospitals.Read More
In recent months, court commissioners on both sides of the Cascades have found the state of Washington in contempt, and even imposed fines, over access to state psychiatric care for people with severe developmental disabilities. The cases involve people who’ve been found to pose an imminent risk to themselves or others, but are languishing in local hospitals.Read More
Hospitals are costly places to get healthcare and not therapeutic environments. So why does Washington have hundreds of people in hospital beds with no need to be there? Because there’s a lack of community beds for people with behavioral challenges. Read More
The Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) announced the contract terminations Tuesday, the same day the state placed Aacres Washington LLC (Spokane) and Aacres Washington LLC (Spokane County #2) on provisional certification status “based on serious non-compliance with the law and regulations.”Read More
It’s been more than a year since the state Department of Social and Health Services took the unprecedented step of shutting down a major in-home care provider for developmentally disabled adults. Now, 16 months after the provider’s sister company, Aacres Washington, took over care of many of those vulnerable adults, the cycle is repeating itself.Read More
A year ago, Washington state had 82 hard-to-place foster youths, mostly teenagers, living in facilities in states as far away as South Carolina, prompting calls to bring them home. As of Aug. 1, that number had been reduced by more than half to 38, according to the Department of Children Youth and Families.Read More
Since February 2017, 16 Washington nursing homes — from Seattle to Ritzville — have closed, announced they will close, or converted to assisted living. Each time a nursing home closes, it forces vulnerable residents to endure disruptive — and potentially dangerous — moves. Read More
The only thing unique about this twice-weekly child play space, buried deep in a state Department of Social and Health Services office in Yakima, are its customers: families in crisis. "When they come into this room and are here for a while you see the shoulders drop," Maria Vasquez said. "They relax. They settle. They smile."Read More
Over the past eight years, Washington has lost 170 residential beds for hard-to-place foster youth. But now there’s a push in Olympia to nearly double provider reimbursement rates in an effort to reverse the trend.Read More
Friends remember Washington social worker Alan Naiman as frugal. He wore old shoes held together with duct tape, bought his apparel at the grocery store, drove jalopies and ate at cheap restaurants. But when he died of cancer in January 2018, at age 63, the people around him learned that he had quietly saved millions for a higher cause.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
Everyone survived, but Laurie would never be the same again. She had suffered a severe brain injury that left her in a coma-like state for nearly a month. When Laurie emerged from the coma, her personality had changed — a common effect of traumatic brain injuries.Read More
In an unprecedented move, the state of Washington is shutting down a major provider of in-home care for developmentally disabled adults in King, Spokane and Yakima counties because of repeated serious violations of care standards.Read More
File photo of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Cheryl Strange, former CEO of Western State and the current Secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services. AUSTIN JENKINS / […]Read More
