Gregoire signs law to protect children's mental health services

Expanded treatment for children will continue despite state budget problems

May 7, 2009

OLYMPIA—Legislation signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire today ensures that children who are struggling with mental illness will continue to get expanded services that were put in place by Washington's landmark children's mental health reforms of 2007.

Much of the legal authority for expanded mental health treatment for children was set to expire next year. The expanded services have been widely praised for their impact on mental health issues affecting children, but their continuation was in doubt due to the state's budget woes.

"Getting this continued help for children signed into law is a huge relief to mental health professionals, advocates for kids and most of all to the families who saw that our 2007 reforms are really making a difference," said Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle), the main sponsor of the legislation signed today.

Dickerson's bill ensures that children receiving outpatient mental health therapy under state managed care and fee-for-service programs will continue to be allowed up to 20 visits per year-instead of the 12 visits that were allowed prior to the reforms passed two years.

The legislation also ensures that state-funded mental health services for children can still be provided by a broad pool of licensed mental health professionals and persons under their direct supervision. Access to an expanded pool of mental health providers has been crucial to getting effective mental health services to more children.

"Before our children's mental health reforms, families had to get the services from psychiatrists," said Dickerson, who also authored the 2007 legislation. "But that barrier meant most families were out of luck, because there were only a handful of eligible providers in the entire state, and in many parts of the state there were none at all."

Witnesses lined up at the public hearings on House Bill 1373 to to support Dickerson's efforts to protect the gains made in mental health care for Washington's children.

"Over the past two years the state has taken significant steps to improve children's mental health," said Dr. Eric Trupin, who directs the Division of Public Behavioral Health and Justice Policy at the University of Washington's Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.

"The passage of House Bill 1373 will greatly expand the gains," Trupin said. "Most importantly, they will really expand the access of families to services prior to points when children really are in critical need and have severe problems." Dickerson said she appreciated the bipartisan support in the Legislature for improving mental health care for kids.

"There was some concern about the costs of effective services, but the overwhelming majority of lawmakers agreed that the long-term costs of untreated or undertreated mental illness in children is much, much higher for the kids, their families and our entire state," Dickerson said.