Revised Code of Washington 71.24: Community Mental Health Services Act

By: the Washington State Legislature

It is the intent of the legislature to establish a community mental health program which shall help people experiencing mental illness to retain a respected and productive position in the community. This will be accomplished through programs that focus on resilience and recovery, and practices that are evidence-based, research-based, consensus-based, or, where these do not exist, promising or emerging best practices, which provide for:

(1) Access to mental health services for adults of the state who are acutely mentally ill, chronically mentally ill, or seriously disturbed and children of the state who are acutely mentally ill, severely emotionally disturbed, or seriously disturbed, which services recognize the special needs of underserved populations, including minorities, children, the elderly, disabled, and low-income persons. Access to mental health services shall not be limited by a person's history of confinement in a state, federal, or local correctional facility. It is also the purpose of this chapter to promote the early identification of mentally ill children and to ensure that they receive the mental health care and treatment which is appropriate to their developmental level. This care should improve home, school, and community functioning, maintain children in a safe and nurturing home environment, and should enable treatment decisions to be made in response to clinical needs in accordance with sound professional judgment while also recognizing parents' rights to participate in treatment decisions for their children;

(2) The involvement of persons with mental illness, their family members, and advocates in designing and implementing mental health services that reduce unnecessary hospitalization and incarceration and promote the recovery and employment of persons with mental illness. To improve the quality of services available and promote the rehabilitation, recovery, and reintegration of persons with mental illness, consumer and advocate participation in mental health services is an integral part of the community mental health system and shall be supported;

(3) Accountability of efficient and effective services through state of the art outcome and performance measures and statewide standards for monitoring client and system outcomes, performance, and reporting of client and system outcome information. These processes shall be designed so as to maximize the use of available resources for direct care of people with a mental illness and to assure uniform data collection across the state;

(4) Minimum service delivery standards;

(5) Priorities for the use of available resources for the care of the mentally ill consistent with the priorities defined in the statute;

(6) Coordination of services within the department, including those divisions within the department that provide services to children, between the department and the office of the superintendent of public instruction, and among state mental hospitals, county authorities, regional support networks, community mental health services, and other support services, which shall to the maximum extent feasible also include the families of the mentally ill, and other service providers; and

(7) Coordination of services aimed at reducing duplication in service delivery and promoting complementary services among all entities that provide mental health services to adults and children.

It is the policy of the state to encourage the provision of a full range of treatment and rehabilitation services in the state for mental disorders including services operated by consumers and advocates. The legislature intends to encourage the development of regional mental health services with adequate local flexibility to assure eligible people in need of care access to the least-restrictive treatment alternative appropriate to their needs, and the availability of treatment components to assure continuity of care. To this end, counties are encouraged to enter into joint operating agreements with other counties to form regional systems of care. Regional systems of care, whether operated by a county, group of counties, or another entity shall integrate planning, administration, and service delivery duties under chapters 71.05 and 71.24 RCW to consolidate administration, reduce administrative layering, and reduce administrative costs. The legislature hereby finds and declares that sound fiscal management requires vigilance to ensure that funds appropriated by the legislature for the provision of needed community mental health programs and services are ultimately expended solely for the purpose for which they were appropriated, and not for any other purpose.

It is further the intent of the legislature to integrate the provision of services to provide continuity of care through all phases of treatment. To this end the legislature intends to promote active engagement with mentally ill persons and collaboration between families and service providers.

To link to the Revised Code of Washington 71.24 in its entirety, click here.