Fourteen years in the past, The Seattle Instances printed two items I wrote about my sister and our household’s wrestle to get her sustained psychological well being remedy.
The primary was after she jumped off the Freeway 520 bridge on New Yr’s Day 2010, and the second when the neighborhood got here collectively to help us later that yr.
After being rescued from Lake Washington in 2010, my sister was hospitalized within the psychiatric unit at Harborview Medical Middle for a month and underwent 18 electroshock remedies earlier than being admitted to Western State Hospital in Tacoma. There, she tried to take her personal life once more by placing her head below the wheels of a semitruck.
By February 2011, my sister grew to become steady sufficient to be discharged to a residential psychological well being facility. We bought her automobile and spent down her belongings so she certified for Medicaid and Social Safety incapacity earnings.
Quick ahead to 2024: I’m comfortable to report that my sister has resided on the identical Sound psychological well being facility in Redmond for the previous 13 years. However that’s about to alter.
King County has decided my sister is now doing too effectively to obtain the extent of care that has stored her secure and steady for greater than a decade. The county knowledgeable Sound that it’s going to pay for my sister’s care solely by Might 31. King County bases this on a quantity system, which considers her one level higher than she must be to remain the place she is.
In 2010, I identified how laborious it’s to get somebody into the psychological well being care remedy system. In 2024, I’m discovering how laborious it’s to maintain them there.
The psychological well being system is a revolving door. And in the long run, it prices households and taxpayers extra grief and cash than if we handled those that want psychological well being companies with compassion and continuity of care.
Simply because somebody is doing effectively doesn’t imply that they don’t want a sustained degree of psychological well being companies. Would we cease giving a diabetic insulin if their glucose numbers are steady?
Her caregivers at Sound have informed the county that my sister ought to stay the place she is, the place the place she has rebuilt her life.
King County behavioral well being personnel are adamant that my sister should transfer, however have let her keep so long as we present progress towards transferring her out.
What does that progress entail? It started with a two-and-a-half-hour in-person evaluation for each of us on the state Division of Social and Well being Companies. It concerned a stroll down reminiscence lane of all of the involuntary remedy my sister has undergone starting in highschool.
The evaluation was used to find out what day by day price the state will give my sister for her care. With that, now we have been off to the races to search out an grownup household dwelling that has a gap and can take her for that price. It’s an unlikely state of affairs in prosperous Redmond.
If we do safe a spot in such a house, my sister will change into an outpatient and should discover a solution to get to her therapeutic and psychiatric medicine-monitoring appointments. Presently, she receives these the place she lives. Previously, she couldn’t encourage herself to go to outpatient appointments or take her meds, which resulted within the cycle of involuntary remedies.
My sister’s assessed day by day price can be $20 lower than what is required to maintain her on the Sound facility in Redmond. The household is prohibited from supplementing that quantity.
It seems King County’s goal is to get my sister off the county rolls to maximise their finances {dollars}, and onto the state rolls the place she is going to now not be a value merchandise for the county. Can we please take a look at individuals who want persevering with psychological well being care as individuals and never as finances numbers?
Can we please cease the merry-go-round and maintain my sister the place she is secure and steady and has shaped sustaining relationships that give her function and a few semblance of normalcy? Should an excellent psychological well being story come to a crushing finish?
