Op-Ed: Vote Yes on Proposition 1, the Crisis Care Centers Levy

Lake Forest Park resident and North Urban Human Services Alliance (NUHSA) member Alison Carver generously shared the following personal story in order to encourage residents to vote YES on Prop. 1, the Crisis Care Centers Levy. 

To learn more, click here Vote by April 25th!

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Vote Yes on Proposition 1, the Crisis Care Centers Levy. If approved, this proposition would fund behavioral health services and capital facilities, including a countywide crisis care centers network; increased residential treatment mobile crisis care; post-discharge stabilization; and workforce supports.

I don't share this information lightly but with the hopes your vote can prevent another unbearable loss.

My beautiful, talented, and brilliant daughter died by suicide on October 8th after numerous interactions with the broken mental health system in Washington State. She was seemingly thriving with a promising career, friends and her own apartment.

In the months before she died, she was transported to Harborview on numerous occasions, strapped in a four point restraint, left in a cart in a hallway in the ER, administered a dose of Haldol, then released the following day with no follow-up care. 

She was released from an involuntary 110 hour hold by a King County Judge, against the advice of her care team, doctors and social workers, again with no follow up care. She talked constantly about the trauma of being restrained and the physical scars the restraints left of her wrists and ankles.

I believe access to a walk in Crisis Care Center, staffed with trained medical teams, would have saved her life.

Please vote YES on Proposition 1. Ballots are due April 25th.