PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Pierce County’s mental health crisis responses are limited after Recovery Innovations stopped operating the Crisis Recovery Center in Parkland-Spanaway last March. Although a new provider was selected to take over, the center won’t reopen until the state finalizes their pricing contract, which may not occur until next spring.
What the Crisis Recovery Center provided
The Crisis Recovery Center, also referred to as the CRC, was supposed to be a place for people who needed support facing a mental health or substance abuse crisis. The CRC was a voluntary intake center and accepted everyone regardless of their insurance status. It offered a stable place for first responders to take community members to who needed help.
Once admitted, the patient had access to medical and psychiatric attention, as well as detox, stabilization and other wraparound services to address their needs.
The county hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony in August 2021 to celebrate the opening of the then-new Crisis Recovery Center. In a clip of the ceremony, Senior Counsel for the County Executive of Pierce County Steve O’Ban can be heard saying that it was “a place where people who need vital care can get it at the time they need it most.”
But Recovery Innovations, the provider that operated the center, announced they were closing it along with their Evaluation and Treatment Center in Fife in March, citing financial reasons, according to O’Ban. The treatment center in Fife is operated by a private landlord, but the CRC is under Pierce County’s jurisdiction.
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What’s next for the Crisis Recovery Center?
O’Ban said that a new provider was selected to reopen the center, but “they need to get rates finalized from the healthcare authority before they can bring their business model to Pierce County,” which “typically get negotiated and finalized in the spring of every year” — meaning they may not be able to launch services again until later in 2025.
To speed up the process, Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier issued a letter to the state healthcare authority urging them to get the rates established now so they can reopen the center before then. However, that process is still undergoing review. (The letter Dammeier wrote can be viewed as a PDF here.)
For now, while the center remains closed, Carelon, which is the state’s Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization (BH-ASO) in the Pierce County region, established a network of various providers to help residents’ mental health needs. But the crisis response isn’t as smooth as it once was while the center was open.
For example, if first responders can’t stabilize a patient on the scene, they are often left with taking people to an emergency department, or in some cases that escalate into violence, to the local jail. Neither of these options are ideal, according to some of the mental health providers in Pierce County.
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Pierce County first responders have adjusted responses to mental health calls
One of those mental health providers is the HOPE program in Tacoma. HOPE, which stands for Holistic Outreach Promoting Engagement, launched in September 2023 under the fire department as an alternative response for behavioral health crises. They respond to 911 calls in the Tacoma, Fife, and Fircrest region if there’s need of de-escalation, safety planning, case management or other stabilization services. Their goal is to divert people they respond to from both the emergency room and jail.
Aleesia Morales and Cassie Hallstone, program directors of HOPE, said they’ve had to adapt now that the center is closed.
“We are doing a lot of that work in the community with people,” Morales said.
She added that they have to do a “higher level of follow-up” to connect their clients to other forms of support.
Hallstone said that about a third of the people they’ve contacted ‘have some level of suicidality, and would benefit from offering stabilization.”
She illustrated the difficulties with sending someone to the ER, where “they will sit in the waiting room on their own, and oftentimes they will leave before they’re even triaged to be admitted to the emergency room.” Those people might get called on again, and “we can’t track the number of people who are actually seeking services if they aren’t ever being admitted to the ER,” she said.
That’s opposed to taking them to the stabilization unit, where they “knew the outcome,” she added.
Pierce County’s mental health service needs are growing
The need for mental health support is increasing in Pierce County. The county received proposals from 60 organizations requesting $63 million in funding for the 2024-2025 budget. However, only $29 million was awarded to 28 programs. (A Pierce County Council meeting agenda from Aug. 15, 2023 can be seen as a PDF here.)
“We’re very flexible and so services, when they’re available, we use them and if they’re not available, then we adjust and figure out how to support the community because the community is requesting services and support,” Morales said.
Until the state finalizes their rates with the new provider, the center will remain closed.
The author of this piece, Brinley Froelich, is a contributor to KIRO Newsradio and MyNorthwest.
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