Snohomish County is actively pursuing legislation to authorize the creation of a Triage Center in the county. The legislation is HB 1170 in the House (prime-sponsored by Representative Mary Helen Roberts) and SB 5028 (prime-sponsored by Senator Mary Margaret Haugen) in the Senate.

"Passing this legislation will be a great step forward in making our community safer while helping those with mental illness and drug and alcohol dependencies," said Councilmember Dave Gossett. "When we adopted the .1% mental health/chemical dependency tax a triage center was law enforcement's top priority."

During 2010 over 25% of those booked into the county jail had mental health problems. Earlier studies in 2006 found nearly 30% of those booked had alcohol-related problems and over half were involved with drugs.

In 2006 the county began the Jail Transition Services Program to facilitate access to services for mentally ill offenders while confined in the Snohomish County jail. Between September 2009 and November 2010, staff from the Jail Transition Services Program met with 1,035 inmates. Of these, almost all (87%) had a diagnosis of a major mental illness. The majority (62%) also had known alcohol and/or drug use. 

"The Jail Transition Program was a great first step to identify those with mental illness or drug/alcohol dependencies and try and hook them up with services so they would not come back to jail," said Gossett. "But we need alternatives that work better for our community, better for law enforcement, and better for the individuals."

Currently, when someone is acting out due to mental illness or chemical dependency issues law enforcement has only two options: jail or hospital emergency rooms. Both are very expensive. Additionally, both require a great deal of deputy time during which the deputy is not responding to 911 emergency calls.

Passage of this legislation would provide a third option-the triage center. Law enforcement would make the decision of whether it was necessary to take a person to the jail, an emergency room, or triage. Persons brought to triage would be dropped off, requiring little deputy time. They would be held for 12 hours while services would be provided to stabilize them. They would not be released into the neighborhood but transported to their home or a treatment facility.

"Triage is an important, cost-effective option that keeps our community safe while helping the person in crisis," said Gossett. "It is especially important that we have this option because state budget cuts are likely to result in more people being in crisis than in the past."

Snohomish County has also submitted a planning grant to the federal government for the purpose of looking systemically at the various strategies to use as jail alternatives for persons with mental illness and substance abuse.

"While we have a number of strategies in place--drug courts, prosecutorial diversion, jail transition services and the soon to open Triage Center--we definitely need to look for ways to improve our system," said Gossett. "We need to make sure all our services are coordinated and successful."

The grant will bring together stakeholders from local government as well as the mental health and substance abuse treatment systems. The end result of this proposed planning initiative will be the accumulation of several data-driven plans or programs for meeting the needs of the mentally ill in the County's criminal justice system in the most effective and safest way possible. Once the merits and costs of these plans are examined, the County will pursue grant funding for implementation of the most cost efficient and sustainable programs presented. 

"These kinds of programs are a real win-win," noted Gossett. "We provide better services to some of our most vulnerable citizens while making our neighborhoods safer."