King County will soon begin the biggest expansion of its mental health system in decades, creating five centers meant to support people in a crisis. The Metropolitan King County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to finalize rules determining who can run a crisis care center and how to evaluate them. This plan is the final step before the county begins selecting cities to host a center and the organizations that will run them.
All of this work is geared toward building something that doesn’t exist in King County today: mental health-focused centers where anyone can walk in and receive urgent mental health care. County officials believe the centers could serve as many as 70,000 people annually. “There’s an opportunity here to make King County a national model for crisis care,” Councilmember Reagan Dunn said in Tuesday’s meeting.
“As we know, behavioral health challenges of all kinds are hitting our community harder than ever.” The funding comes from a $1.25 billion property tax levy voters approved last year to fund mental and behavioral health services.
The first center is planned to open in 2026, with more opening in following years. All five centers are expected to be open and operating by 2030. It took five months of discussion and amendments for the council to approve the implementation plan, a detailed 150-page document outlining how centers will be placed, funded and evaluated.
The county doesn’t have these types of centers right now. People in crisis oft.
