First Initiatives
First Initiatives
A focused start to make care faster, steadier, and easier to navigate—starting this year.
Our First Step: Infrastructure
Our first initiative is to establish infrastructure. This is critical to deploying existing resources while building the structural foundation for future coordination.
Establishing infrastructure includes:
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Governance
Establishing authority for state decision makers and agency leaders to oversee the planning and operationalization for a System of Care.
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Outcomes monitoring
Monitoring realistic, meaningful metrics over time.
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Funding coordination
Identifying all relevant streams, requirements, and limitations for strategic resource use.
Next: Improve the Service Continuum
Washington Thriving has identified three areas on the service continuum for early attention and focus to make progress filling gaps in services and supports. These focal areas balance the constraints of the 2025 to 2027 state budget and the urgent need for action over the next 1 to 3 years. In each case, steps can begin without additional state funding.
Perinatal well-being
Develop plans that both advance culturally responsive, non-stigmatizing perinatal mental health and substance use screening, and overcome barriers to family centered substance use care for pregnant and parenting people.
This issue affects 17,300 Washington families annually. While this is a relatively small population of parents, perinatal behavioral health interventions interrupt intergenerational trauma cycles and create cascading generational benefits.
K-12 student behavioral health
Propose a statewide definition of schools’ role in students’ behavioral health, clarify the key functions, and provide all schools with access to tools and resources they may choose to apply to students’ well-being and readiness to learn.
Nearly all children and youth go to school. Not enough schools in Washington have the guidance, resources, or know-how needed to support student behavioral health. This will make early identification and help available where kids spend most of their time.
Treatment services expansion
Expand and improve crisis and stabilization services for young people, while also expanding services to prevent escalation to crisis. We also need more specialized capacity for high-need populations and those with complex conditions.
Young people and families can’t get the behavioral health treatment they need in our state, and face crises as a result. This is well documented and echoed by the multi-agency response and Rapid Care Team. Washington can build on its strong foundations and relationships to better serve these young people and their caregivers and families.
