Drafter
Clerk 6/28/2007
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AN ORDINANCE adopting the mental health recovery system implementation plan, as required by K.C.C. 2.43.015.
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BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health reported in 2003 that each year between five and seven percent of adults experience serious mental illness and between five and nine percent of children experience serious emotional disturbance.
B. Mental illnesses usually strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescent and young adulthood. All ages are susceptible, but the young and the old are especially vulnerable.
C. Without treatment, the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society are staggering. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than one hundred billion dollars each year in the United States.
D. Treatment for serious mental illness has been found to be highly effective. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, between seventy and ninety percent of individuals achieve a significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life through a combination of medications and psychosocial treatment and supports.
E. Early identification and treatment are critical. Providing access to those treatment services and other supports proven to be effective helps to accelerate recovery and minimize further harm related to the course of the illness.
F. The 2003 report of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health recognized the recovery orientation as a best practice model appropriate for public mental health agencies.
G. The Washington state legislature amended the Community Mental Health Services Act, chapter 71.24 RCW, to include recovery concepts in the 2005 session.
H. King County first recognized the desirability of moving beyond maintenance as a goal and adopted Ordinance 13974 in 2000 establishing the first steps toward embracing the goal of recovery.
I. Subsequent research by the mental health, chemical abuse and dependency services division regarding the concepts of recovery, and analysis of results achieved in other parts of the country, indicated that systems based on recovery were more cost-effective. As people succeed in recovery, they require fewer intensive services, such as hospitalization and incarceration, and they begin to contribute financially to their own welfare.
J. Based on this review and analysis, the mental health, chemical abuse and dependency services division developed a five-year strategic plan to convert the King County mental health system to a system based on recovery concepts and the implementation of evidence-based and best practices to help children, youth, adults and seniors with serious mental health conditions recover their lives.
K. On November 15, 2005, the metropolitan King County council approved Ordinance 15327, "AN ORDINANCE adopting the recovery model as the policy framework for developing and operating the mental health services for which King County is responsible; adopting a five-year work program for converting the service system to a recovery-based model and requiring a detailed implementation plan and progress reporting process . . . ."
L. Ordinance 15327 further establishes the definition of "recovery" as a process whereby an individual not only achieves management of their symptoms butregains or develops sufficient skills and autonomy to enable the individual to live, work, learn and participate more fully in the community in an age appropriate manner. "Recovery" means a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life, even with illness caused limitations.
M. The department of community and human services is directed in Ordinance 15327 to complete a recovery system implementation plan and submit this plan to the council for approval by June 2007. Per the ordinance, the plan shall result from completion of work described in phase I of the recovery plan for mental health services and shall include:
1. A progress report on developing a shared vision of recovery concepts and principles at all levels in the system;
2. Identification and analysis of best practices and promising practices for replication in such areas as outreach and engagement, assessment and case planning, medication and symptom management, housing, employment, peer support, consumer involvement in service planning and provision and collaboration and integration of services with other key systems, including housing and homeless intervention, substance abuse treatment and recovery services, employment and employment training and criminal justice;
3. Assessment of existing services, resources, reimbursement and contract models in light of best practices to identify needed service, resource alignment and modifications to the reimbursement and contracting model. In addition, this assessment shall identify any county, state and federal restrictions that pose obstacles to full implementation of the recovery model;
4. Strategies, goals, action steps and timelines for implementing the identified system changes necessary to achieve a fully recovery-oriented service system;
5. Defined outcome and other appropriate performance measures; and
6. The system for monitoring, evaluating and reporting progress in implementation of the recovery model.
SECTION 2. Recovery Plan for Mental Health Services Phase II Implementation Plan. Attachment A to this ordinance, the implementation plan for
transforming King County's mental health system to a system based on recovery concepts, as required in Ordinance 15327, is hereby adopted.