Roadmap

Roadmap

How to implement Washington Thriving’s vision.

The Longterm Roadmap

Building and maintaining a unified, responsive System of Care that puts children, youth, young adults, and those who care for them at its center requires sustained, coordinated progress toward the vision over many years, while meeting immediate needs and responding to changing circumstances. This is a 10+ year endeavor that requires strategic patience and persistence to achieve system-wide transformation.

Establish the foundation for transformation:

  • Leadership and governance
  • System of Care structures
  • Performance measures
  • Integrated information systems
  • Integrated financing
  • Plan to fill gaps

Put what works into practice:

  • System of Care coordinates across state, regional, and local levels
  • Sustainable rates
  • Workforce initiatives
  • Feedback loops
  • Evaluation and learning informs resource allocation

Make what works available to everyone, everywhere:

  • Fully integrated financing
  • Complete service continuum
  • Healthy workforce engine
  • Data-informed decision-making

Keep learning and growing together:

  • Ongoing innovation
  • Evolution in response to changing needs
  • State of the art

Implementation Principles

These implementation principles will ensure that implementation of the Strategic Plan stays aligned with Washington Thriving’s vision.

Center lived and living experience. Ensure young people, families, and providers with experience of behavioral health systems and needs are true partners in implementation.

Adapt and learn. Participate in ongoing and intentional learning, measure outcomes, and adapt based on what is working. Evaluate progress and reprioritize at regular intervals while maintaining a throughline and keeping sight of the long-term vision.

Function over form. Avoid cumbersome reorganization. Incentivize collaboration.

Design for the margins. Build infrastructure and policies that work for the smallest, most rural, and least-resourced communities first, ensuring that system improvements reach those historically left behind.

Make decisions as close to service delivery as possible. Ensure that communities of all sizes have both voice and power in shaping the system. Design state-level coordination to support—not replace—local capacity.

Focused interventions. Resolve specific gaps and challenges while working toward broad system overhaul.

Fiscal and practical realism. Acknowledge constraints and the pace of change.

Evidence-informed approach. Incorporate proven models and best practices, adapted to communities’ specific needs.

Build on success. Build on and strengthen what Washington already has, ensuring that progress is cumulative. Don’t start from scratch.

Reduce complexity and administrative burden. Simplify processes and reduce administrative complexity for families, providers, and agencies.

Consider sustainability. Design the system to withstand political transitions and budget pressures by building broad support and demonstrating clear results.