Washington’s four intensive inpatient facilities that serve youth with severe mental health issues are strained, according to the Associated Press. FOX13
For the children and teens at Tamarack, the promise of something that "works" means everything.four intensive inpatient facilities that serve as a veritable last stop for youth with mental health diagnoses so significant that they’re unsafe living at home. Some youth have cycled in and out of emergency departments following a mental health crisis; others have bounced between foster homes, lived in juvenile detention or experienced lengthy and unsuccessful trials with outpatient care.
As Washington faces a burgeoning youth mental health crisis, places like Pearl Youth and Tamarack have become a central focus of debate over how to expand care for children experiencing serious mental illnesses or behavioral problems. On one front sit families who are fighting — through lawsuits or sheer determination — to piece together intensive outpatient services so their children can stay at home.
To serve children with serious mental illnesses, Washington state contracts with three nonprofit residential facilities: Tamarack, Pearl Youth, and a small facility in Yakima called Two Rivers Landing. The state runs a fourth facility, called the Child Study and Treatment Center, near Western State Hospital in Lakewood.
Now, "there’s been so many kids waiting to get in, whether it’s from home or hospital, that there’s a push, like ‘We have people in line here, let’s get going,’" he said. Tamarack has stayed afloat because it accepts children with public or private insurance, Davis said. Private plans tend to pay a little more than the state.
For instance, a 15-year-old at Pearl Youth who met all his treatment goals and had been stable for five months was supposed to leave the facility in early May. But his guardians said they weren’t prepared to pick him up, Dozal said. So Pearl Youth kept him for two additional weeks — and asked the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families to look for other options, like foster care or a group home. But by last Monday — the teen’s new discharge date — nothing had panned out.
To help speed more children and teenagers toward care, Washington State Health Care Authority, which oversees the CLIP program, recently landed funding for a new 12-bed facility and at least 35 additional beds, officials said.