Seattle's mental health crisis demands action

This article originnally appeared in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “Wright on Center” column on June 14, 2019.

We have a mental health crisis in our city that continues to have dire consequences. It’s nearly impossible to traverse our region without encountering people in need of help, potentially putting themselves and others at risk.

This is the output of a revolving door of arrest and release because local law enforcement doesn’t have the proper tools to manage this crisis with the urgency it so desperately needs.

It’s time to explore alternative policies that will force the most at-risk individuals into treatment. It is neither humane nor American to stand by any longer.

In the 1980s the federal government began to shift funding for mental health and addiction services from the federal level to the state and regional levels. As a state and as a region we have not picked up the mantle to fund those services.

Last year, I sat down with the newly appointed Seattle Police Department Chief Carmen Best, who told me that the police department received more than 10,000 calls the previous year from folks experiencing a mental health crisis.

Best recently said that 10,412 street arrests were made in 2018 in Seattle. Twenty percent of those arrested were released the same day because they were deemed to be not mentally fit for trial.

This arrest-and-release policy is not good for public safety, nor is it good for the individual’s safety.

In July, three people were stabbed downtown by a man with a history of mental illness. What’s been described as a random attack is a manifestation of this crisis. In another incident in the same month, tourists visiting downtown Seattle had coffee thrown on their toddler by a person who has been in and out of jail and mental health facilities over the last decade. Thankfully, the coffee wasn’t hot.

We can’t afford to wait as things get worse. Parts of the city are becoming more unsafe for residents and visitors.

Declaring a mental health crisis to increase public safety requires the city, county and their departments to evaluate their own policies and practices. We should look to our municipal peers’ experiences with similar crises.

In San Francisco, the city is piloting a program for individuals who have been detained for psychiatric hospitalization eight or more times in a single year. Those individuals, after refusing multiple voluntary treatment offers, would receive forced mental health care for up to one year and have a court-appointed guardian.

Washington state lawmakers passed an ambitious plan this year which shows great promise to reinvigorate and reshape our mental health system.

Unfortunately, many of the fixes, including the investment in new community mental health centers and increased bed capacity at hospitals, could take years to come to fruition.

There is no shortage of challenges, but our city and state have taken risks to find solutions to pressing problems such as racial justice in policing, income inequality, climate change and protecting the middle class.

We must extend the same care and attention to the mental health crisis affecting every aspect of our city, from businesses to schools to our neighborhoods.

We have identified homelessness as a crisis and are moving forward with solutions. Now is the time to do the same for mental health.