OLYMPIA – Young people in the midst of a behavioral health crisis would have a safe place to go for immediate treatment under legislation heard Thursday in the Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee.
SB 5853, sponsored by Sen. Manka Dhingra (D-Redmond), would build on the system established last year that created crisis relief centers (CRC), a new type of community-based facility licensed or certified by the Department of Health. But where those centers serve only adults, Dhingra’s new bill calls for CRCs that would provide services to minors.
“Over the last six years we have been building capacity for services across the behavioral health crisis continuum: A Place to Call, Someone to Come, A Safe Place to Be,” said Dhingra. “The crisis relief system is the safe place to be. When young people in crisis need treatment immediately, they will have somewhere to go that can help stabilize them and connect them to the longer-term services they need to get their lives back on track.”
CRCs, as laid out in Dhingra’s 2023 bill SB 5120, are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offering immediate mental health and substance abuse care to adults for up to 23 hours, as well as referrals to further care. A CRC must accept walk-ins, first responder drop-offs, and referrals from the 988 system. Before the establishment of the CRC system, emergency rooms and jails were the only places required to take anyone in need. SB 5853 would expand this system to enable separate facilities to provide services for minors.
The “no wrong door” framework — meaning that people in mental health and substance use crises will not be turned away — is the most effective way to get people the treatment they need, when they need it, Dhingra said.
