OLYMPIA - Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday released his 2017–19 budget proposals which include plans for a major overhaul of the state’s troubled mental health system. His proposal would create a patient-centered system with sizable new resources for treating people in the community. Budget will follow expert recommendations for more psychiatric hospital staff and add significant community resources
The mental health investments in Inslee’s budget will provide more capacity in the community to help people avoid hospitalization and modernize Western State Hospital’s staffing and operations. Under Inslee’s proposal, Western State would focus on serving forensic and hard-to-place civil commitment patients while many civil commitment patients would be served at nine, new state-run 16-bed regional hospitals.
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