Washington's court-approved plan for phase one of the Trueblood settlement sets hiring, bed and diversion targets
The parties to the Trueblood case filed the final implementation plan for Phase 1 of the contempt settlement on June 27, 2019, shortly before the phase began on July 1. The settlement calls for three two-year phases tied to the state budget cycle: Phase 1 covers Pierce, Southwest and Spokane regions, Phase 2 begins in 2021 with King County, and Phase 3 starts in 2023 in a region to be chosen. The document acknowledges that the timelines are very ambitious and that many elements are programs that had never existed in Washington, so missed dates would not by themselves count as a material breach if the state made reasonable efforts.
The plan specifies the building blocks: hiring 13 evaluators in the first year and five more in the second; community outpatient competency restoration with housing supports; forensic navigators with caseloads capped at 25 who help courts consider diversion; converting wards at Eastern and Western State hospitals into forensic wards of 50 and 42 beds by the end of 2019; and added crisis-triage and stabilization beds in the Spokane region.
It is the primary document for how the settlement was meant to shift Washington from inpatient-only restoration toward a diversion-and-community model.
Source: Trueblood Implementation Plan Final — U.S. District Court, W.D. Wash. (court filing hosted by Disability Rights Washington), by U.S. District Court, W.D. Wash. (filing in Trueblood v. DSHS, No. C14-1178 MJP)
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