-Good evening, everyone.
My name is Neil Scott, and for the past 18 years,
I have been the producer and host
of "Recovery Coast to Coast" radio on iHeart Radio.
[ Cheers and applause ]
We've now upgraded to a national podcast,
and you can find all of our programs
at recoverycoasttocoast.org.
You know, the bright side of addiction
and the bright side of mental illness is recovery.
And recovery is living proof.
And that's what we're all about here tonight.
We must continue to shorten the distance
between active addiction and mental illness
and long-term recovery.
It can happen. It will happen.
It continues to happen.
I'd like to welcome everyone tonight.
It's so great to finally be back in an in-person environment.
I've been fortunate enough to be the emcee,
oh, quite a few years now, and of course,
we got sidetracked by COVID and Zoom and all of that,
but we are here in person tonight.
We welcome everyone, legislators and elected leaders,
special guests, and of course, community members
to this in-person annual celebration
of our community's commitment
to behavioral health care and recovery.
Now, before we meet our legislators on stage,
we'd like to acknowledge and to thank
the many co-sponsors of this year's forum.
And at last count, I think there were 41.
This includes provider agencies,
health plans, advocacy organizations,
and many other community partners.
Thank you to the co-sponsors.
Would you please give them a round of applause?
They put this thing together.
[ Applause ]
We would also like to welcome
the many other elected officials,
including judges and city and town mayors
and dogs, of course, [Laughs]
and members from all across King County
who have joined us tonight in the audience.
We thank you to all elected officials here this evening.
So let's get this thing started by welcoming a dear friend
and a staunch advocate for individuals and families
who struggle with mental illness and addiction.
He's a fourth generation Washingtonian.
He served the region for more than two decades
as a state representative,
a state senator, King County Council member,
and for the last 14 years, he's been our county executive.
And by the way, I just found this out the other day.
King County is the 12th largest county in the country
with over 2.3 million residents.
Wow.
He's championed efforts around housing, child care,
climate change, and public transportation.
And most recently, our King County Executive
has led efforts to bolster the behavioral health system
and create a connected continuum of care in the region.
He's also an outspoken champion for people in recovery
from mental illness and addiction.
Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming
to the stage our good friend,
King County Executive Dow Constantine.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Good evening, and welcome to King County's annual
Behavioral Health Legislative Forum.
For more than two decades,
this community has joined together for this event,
shining a spotlight on effective,
accessible behavioral health care
and celebrating stories of recovery.
Tonight, you will hear about the progress we've made
and the work ahead.
In 2023, the community raised significant awareness
of behavioral health needs and took decisive action
to address those needs.
I want to start off by highlighting two major steps
King County is taking.
The first is our Crisis Care Centers initiative.
I'm grateful to the King County Council
and voters for approving the Crisis Care Centers levy.
Over the next nine years, the initiative will restore
mental health residential beds, invest in our workforce,
and build five crisis care centers,
including one dedicated to youth.
Together, we will build a comprehensive
crisis response network,
including a robust and representative workforce,
because people are at the center
of the Crisis Care Centers initiative
and critical to its success.
However, after watching numerous facility and program closures
and too many providers struggling to hire
and retain experienced and representative staff,
we know it will take more to bolster
this essential workforce.
That's why we took a second major step this last summer.
In partnership with the region's five managed care organizations,
I announced an investment of $30 million
in the community behavioral health providers
of the King County Integrated Care Network.
This funding created a 15% increase in Medicaid rates,
a down payment on the state's
similar investments coming next year,
and helped stabilize provider operations
and increase worker wages.
This progress can only be sustained
with the state's foundational behavioral health investments,
and I'm deeply grateful for the state legislators in our county.
Those here tonight championed historic investments
in behavioral health care over the last two sessions.
This is a significant step in the right direction.
Thank you for your leadership.
But the work is far from done.
Deeper state investments and policy changes are needed.
In 2024, the county will ask the legislature
to strengthen Medicaid funding and other workforce supports
for community behavioral health care providers,
build and preserve community behavioral health facilities,
fully fund state crisis care programs,
expand community-based programs for people
with the most intensive behavioral health needs,
including those that help people avoid the criminal legal system,
and strengthen life-saving treatment
for individuals with substance use disorder.
The county and state must continue to partner
closely to expand accessible,
quality behavioral health care for our region
until the pathway to recovery is available to all.
Tonight, you're going to hear a few stories
that will demonstrate what's possible with the journey
of courage and healing, leading more people to recovery.
Thank you again for your continued partnership
and collaboration and everything you do
working on behalf of the people of King County.
-We have a great friend in Dow Constantine,
that's for sure. [ Applause ]
Joining us tonight are two speakers
from Seattle Public Schools' Interagency Recovery Academy --
Student and Family Advocate, Seth Welch,
and a wonderful student, Karis Paul.
They're going to come up and share with you right now.
-My name is Seth Welch.
I am a person in long-term recovery,
and I'm honored to be here tonight
and to get to share with you about a solution
that I can absolutely stand behind with total integrity
and say it's completely working.
I am the substance use disorder professional
at Washington State's only recovery --
public recovery high school for young people
in recovery from substance use disorder.
Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm excited about this.
You know, for too long, we've been, like,
this hidden gem that actually is located
right up about five blocks away from here
in the old Queen Anne High School gymnasium.
This has been since 2015, through a partnership
between Seattle Public Schools
and King County Behavioral Health.
We've cultivated a school
that if you want to know if it's working,
well, let's just look at this month.
For Gratitude Month, we have --
you're going to get to hear from one of them tonight,
actually the one -- the student with the most sobriety,
but we've had six students, teenagers,
celebrate annual milestones in recovery.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Based on models that have worked throughout the country,
this partnership between Interagency,
Seattle Public Schools,
and King County Behavioral Health
has taken something -- and truly incredible --
and I'm watching it in young people --
of course it's amazing to have uninterrupted sobriety,
but more importantly, I want to talk about
the quality of the recovery, of transforming their lives.
And the best way that I can do that
is to have one of those young people themself
talk about this.
Please reach out. Please come visit.
This is -- I've never seen and I've never been
so passionate about something my entire life.
All I want to see, and I'll put my whole life's work into this,
is getting another recovery high school in South Seattle
in a more diverse area.
[ Applause ]
I am just honored to be a part of it, and thank you all.
There are so many people here
that actually made the school possible.
I don't want to take any more of Karis' time.
Please join me in welcoming Karis.
-My story started way too young.
I think that most people and most youth
that struggle with mental health,
their story starts much younger than people know.
I started showing symptoms young,
but I started using at the age of 11
and continued that up until I was 15,
with many suicide attempts, running away,
basically doing anything I could to get my hands on drugs.
I was using fentanyl, meth.
Like, anything I could get my hands on, I was using.
I ended up being administered
to multiple hospitals, like Fairfax
and a couple of the others,
and being sent out of county for just damage control.
And that landed me in two rehabs.
On my second rehab, I was sent to Muir Wood in California,
and I heard about Interagency,
and I got the opportunity
to come try it out and test the waters.
And by this point, I had started recovery
like, I had gotten sober, but wasn't recovering.
And through the school, I found out what recovery means,
and automatically, I was greeted with many,
many youth that actually cared about being sober and strived
for bettering themselves and everyone around them.
And that was an environment that I wasn't used to.
So it felt really good to have, like, adults
and kids my age understand where I was at
with a solution to help me recover from that.
So I -- Between working the program of AA
and, like, a lot of therapy and mental health work
and support from Seth
and all the other amazing staff at our school,
I am now two years sober.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you.
And honestly, it is such a blessing to still be alive.
I think that everyone has...
the opioid crisis on the back of their mind
and the mental health crisis on the back of their mind.
And that is one of the reasons why I was so quick to say yes
was because it's the fact that I am alive today
is defeating odds by thousands.
And if we can begin to really incorporate
a deeper look into every single youth
and start providing them with services like the school,
like Bridges, which is another recovery group,
and outside of addiction, deeper mental health care and advocacy
from people who know what it's like,
'cause I think that is incredibly helpful,
and I wouldn't have been able to get sober without other addicts,
so...
Basically, I think that the question
that all of you guys should --
should take from this is how do we save lives
and where does this end?
And it ends with other addicts. So thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you, Karis. Thank you, Seth.
[ Applause ]
Treatment works and recovery rocks.
Our next speaker is Susan McLaughlin.
Susan, I had an opportunity to chat with
just a few minutes ago before everyone took the stage.
She's a licensed clinical psychologist
with more than 20 years experience in health care,
behavioral health, and social services.
She's held roles as a clinician, researcher,
and policy administrator.
Susan joined DCHS as the director
of King County's Behavioral Health and Recovery Division.
She just joined in September.
She's a newbie in her role, and in her role,
she oversees behavioral health treatment for the region.
Let's welcome Susan.
-I'm thrilled to be back at King County in this role,
and I'm especially excited to host
our Legislative Forum in person.
This is the first time in person since 2019,
so that's very exciting.
I also had to revise my talking points this morning,
which is never a good thing at the last minute,
but I needed to acknowledge that yesterday,
we lost a great champion for mental health,
Mrs. Rosalynn Carter.
Rosalynn Carter was an early advocate
for reducing stigma around mental illness,
and in her speeches, she often framed mental health care
as a basic human right,
something that I wholeheartedly believe.
She advocated for parity and other medical issues,
was instrumental in the 1980 signing
of the Mental Health Systems Act,
and helped start the effort in this country
to modernize mental health care.
We're going to miss her.
Despite her best efforts, currently,
the behavioral health system is at a tipping point,
and let's face it, the doors to treatment
have not always been open to everyone.
Decades of intergenerational trauma,
a lack of culturally responsive health care, systemic racism,
and discriminatory policies like the war on drugs
have all led to disproportionate rates
of Black and American Indian Alaska Native people
experiencing homelessness,
interacting with the criminal legal system,
and facing barriers to the behavioral health treatment.
At King County, we envision a behavioral health system
that is connected, accessible, and culturally responsive
and also can meet the growing need for care.
For decades, mental health and substance use treatment
have been neglected and grossly underfunded.
But today, I believe that we are in our moment,
and this is part of why I took this job.
People are finally paying attention,
recognizing that you can't have health without mental health.
New resources are being made available,
and it is up to all of us in this room to use this moment
to advance our behavioral health system
in Washington and King County, and to not accept status quo.
And you know what? [ Applause ]
Thank you.
We know what it looks like to do better,
to meet a crisis head on.
In the face of a worldwide pandemic,
King County was first in the nation
to respond with speed, with science, and at scale.
And that is exactly what it will take to respond
to the crisis in our behavioral health system.
The stakes are high. Thank you.
In 2023 alone, 986 people have died
from an opioid overdose in King County.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death
among youth nationwide,
and too many people across the state
are waiting far too long in jail
to be evaluated for their behavioral health conditions.
Or they're waiting in hospitals,
in emergency rooms, for treatment beds
to become available.
The workforce vacancies are double what they were in 2019
for behavioral health care.
A recent survey we conducted in King County
of our community behavioral health agencies
found that there were 600 treatment provider vacancies
in our region -- 600.
And you know what?
It takes people to treat people.
[ Applause ]
Thank you.
Despite these challenges and the inadequate pay,
our behavioral health workers
continue to do amazing work every day.
If you are a direct service provider in here,
please give them a round of applause.
They are heroic.
[ Cheers and applause ]
What is clear to me is that there is great need right now.
Treatment does work, and we need a whole lot more of it
to support pathways to recovery.
King County's Behavioral Health and Recovery Division
is the main driver for a continuum of services
ranging from preventative care and outpatient treatment
to specialty team-based care, residential treatment,
and crisis response.
Today, King County contracts with over 40
community behavioral health providers
that make up the King County Integrated Care Network.
This integrated care network is a unique,
first of its kind partnership
between the county and providers.
Through this dynamic collaboration
and a blend of federal, state, and local resources,
the network works to ensure that a continuum of high quality,
culturally responsive behavioral health care
is available to all.
King County also provides much needed support,
training, and technical assistance to the network
to help maintain the continuum of care that we have.
Because no matter who you are or what insurance you have,
you should be able to get the treatment
where and when you need it.
[ Cheers and applause ] Yes, that's right. You should.
The county and state partner very closely
to provide the regional system of behavioral health care.
And that partnership continues to be
a critical foundation for success.
So this year, I have the privilege
to talk about our robust legislative agenda.
So I'm going to dive right in, and if you happened to pick up
one of these documents on your way in
or scanned the QR code,
you can follow along that way, but you don't have to.
I'm going to tell you what our agenda is.
So first, we need to make Medicaid work better
and strengthen our behavioral health workforce.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Many people don't know this,
but community behavioral health agencies in King County
receive about 80% of their revenue from services
delivered to Medicaid clients.
That means that the stability and accessibility of our network
is primarily determined by whether the Medicaid rates
set by our legislature make it possible
to operate an agency and pay appropriate wages.
This summer, thanks to more robust Medicaid funding,
King County invested $30 million
in our provider network to strengthen our providers
and raise worker wages.
One example of the immediate impact
was that one of the agency's valley cities
is in the process of reopening a 24/7
withdrawal management service.
This is what is possible -- Thank you. [ Chuckles ]
Yeah, we need it. [ Cheers and applause ]
This is what is possible when we all work together.
But it does take more than one-time adjustments.
King County is calling on the state
and the health care authority to change Medicaid
behavioral health rates to better match the true costs
and the full need for quality care.
We also need to continue to support our workforce
and ensure that more people can enter and develop careers
in the field of behavioral health.
[ Applause ]
To this end --
To this end, we are asking for student loan support.
When people have to take on debt to access education
and get the credentials they need to work,
it creates barriers and it disproportionately keeps black,
indigenous, people of color,
and people from underrepresented communities
out of the workforce.
This year, we are calling on the state
to expand eligibility, funding, and flexibility
for state-funded behavioral health student loan support
through the Washington Health Care's
Behavioral Health Program.
This will benefit workers and community behavioral health
across all of Washington state.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Next, and you heard this a minute ago,
we must respond to the overdose crisis.
We know medications like buprenorphine,
methadone, and naloxone work,
but we need more low barrier access to these medications.
I am proud to say we now have 12 locations in King County
where individuals have walk-in access to start buprenorphine,
7 locations where people have access to methadone medication
and 2 publicly funded mobile methadone treatment vans,
where people can access a range of wraparound services
and community resource referrals.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's innovations like this that bring care to people.
However, the rising overdose deaths indicate
that we must do more.
So we're calling on the state to require Medicaid contracts
to support medications for opioid use disorder
at all community behavioral health agencies,
and also to support more providers to implement it.
We're calling on the state to expand mobile vans
that bring low barrier access to medication
to people in multiple locations,
particularly in communities with the greatest need.
And finally, we must create easy access
to lifesaving overdose referral medication.
Naloxone vending machines and other distribution methods
can have a big impact.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Third, we need to care for people in crisis.
We must do more to prevent criminal legal involvement
for people with behavioral health conditions.
And it's time to fully resource
both our crisis and commitment system
and our crisis-based diversion.
The state must sufficiently invest in services
to keep people experiencing behavioral health conditions
out of jails
and to provide timely access to evaluation
and competency restoration services
for those who do encounter the criminal legal system.
It's also past time to eliminate a decades-long pattern
of state underfunding of crisis care.
The state must fully fund all the services
that it requires the local behavioral health
administrative service organizations to provide.
This includes things like responding to people in crisis,
the involuntary treatment court costs,
and access to care for people without Medicaid coverage.
Right now, the local agencies and counties
are left to either pay for those state mandates locally
or cut back on the services that they provide.
Finally, we must expand and preserve
behavioral health facilities.
As the executive said in the video,
effective community behavioral health systems
depend on places for people to go
when they need more intensive services.
It is imperative that the state continue and expand
their investments to establish and preserve
behavioral health facilities,
including fully funding capital construction needs
and addressing areas where there are missing services,
like treatment for substance use disorders.
So I want to echo Executive Constantine's
gratitude to our legislators for stepping up
in recent legislative sessions
to invest significantly in behavioral health care.
Yes. [ Cheers and applause ]
These are major steps in the right direction.
And I thank you all for your leadership.
I couldn't be more proud
to be here alongside all of you tonight,
and I look forward to partnering with you
to increase access to behavioral health care
and to support the people doing this important work.
SAMHSA defines recovery as a process of change
through which individuals
improve their health and wellness,
live self-directed lives,
and strive to reach their full potential.
I read that when Rosalynn Carter was asked
how she wanted to be remembered, she responded by saying,
"I would like for people to think
I took advantage of the opportunities I had
and did the best I could."
Let us together take advantage of the opportunities we have
and ensure recovery for all.
Thank you so much.
-Susan, you are the right person
at the right time for the right reasons.
And thank you for being here tonight.
And thank you so much for remembering Rosalynn Carter,
a true pioneer in our field.
Right now, I'd like to introduce our next recovery speaker,
because recovery is living proof.
I'd like you to meet De Aunte Damper.
Come on up, De Aunte.
-Last December, my dear friend Besa, host of "Rewind with Besa"
that you can see on Converge Media/Fox 13,
asked me what was I most proud of of my work
that I've done over the past year.
The answer was simple.
My pathway to recovery was the best gift
that I could give myself.
Yeah.
[ Applause ]
But it wasn't always like that, y'all.
In 2020, myself, as well as others, right,
was impacted by the pandemic and racial injustice.
I continue to outreach to my community in the day,
and then at night, I would confine myself in isolation,
where in that moment, I was not living my best life.
I, myself, was a meth injection user,
and I would find myself
advocating and protecting and building.
And at night,
I did not know how to give that to myself.
The routine continued -- the relapses,
the psychosis came far too often.
And then in 2022, it just got to the point
where I had enough of not feeling enough.
I actually wanted to end it.
No matter how hard I worked, helped, loved,
I just felt empty.
There was a void inside myself that I struggled to fill.
My friends were extremely supportive,
but I wasn't ready to take care of myself.
I just continued to take care of everyone else,
not realizing I was putting myself in a deeper hole.
I often thought to myself that if I actually got help,
I would lose everything --
community support, jobs, family, partners.
I could not expose myself like that.
So I hid those parts of myself and kept them in dark corners
so no one can see...
but myself.
One night, I looked in the mirror
and I did not recognize me.
I didn't know the man looking back at me.
It frightened me.
While looking at this image, it bared the resemblance of me.
Hold on... Okay.
It bared the resemblance of me.
I thought...
I thought about my community members
that have lost their life to drugs and HIV.
I thought of the ones that went through clinical trials,
AZT, racism, homophobia, transphobia, mass incarceration,
and lack of access to care and/or treatment.
In that moment, I realized that I needed to learn
how to not be ungrateful and heartless.
It was time to take care of me. I had to take care of myself.
My life depended on it.
My time in treatment was a tough journey.
Admitting that you're powerless over your ability --
Admitting that you're powerless over your ability to use
mind-altering substances was hell.
Checking myself -- Checking in with my friends was a must,
at this point.
And by the time I left Lakeside-Milam,
I did some outpatient treatment,
and at this time, I am a year sober.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you.
Oh, Girmay is here. Come on up here, brother.
This is my high school friend. Come up here.
Give it up for Councilmember Girmay.
'Cause it's going to -- I'm going to make a point
when I say this.
[ Applause ]
Thank you.
You know, I'm mindful to my capacity.
I check in with my friends.
And when it comes to burnout,
everything that I thought that I would lose is still here.
Everything that I thought that I would lose is here,
and then some.
I'm so thankful...
to be the community organizer
for Voices Of Community Activists and Leaders,
also known as VOCAL Washington,
where we seek to bring political --
Give it up for my organiza-- the organization.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's an affiliate of VOCAL New York,
where we seek to bring political power to community members
that have been impacted by HIV, substance use,
mass incarceration, homelessness,
and the war on drugs.
Yes, the war on drugs. Can we clap for that?
'Cause it's still happening.
[ Applause ]
I'm so thankful to serve as the vice president
of the Therapy Fund Foundation, a non-profit organization
devoted towards eliminating barriers to black healing
with providing outreach and peer support
to black community members
to have access to a black licensed therapist
in this state and in California.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm also a part of the leadership team
for Brothers United In Leadership Development,
an organization that advocates and empowers
black men in this community, not through grants,
but through love and appreciation
to the black men in this community.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And I also want to shout out Converge Media.
I also host a show on there called "We Live in Color",
where I highlight black LGBTQ community members
in this city.
We will not be tokenized. You will hear our stories.
[ Applause ]
And I stand here now and I smile.
This year has been amazing for me.
I will continue to tell my story,
and when I think about my community --
When I continue to tell my story,
I think about my community members in South King County.
Shout out Representative Claire who can't get --
who can't get the same access to care as I did myself.
That's why I'm very excited about this new
behavioral health levy that we've all just approved.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's a great opportunity to make sure
that we are providing access to care to our community members.
And when I think about this levy,
South King County has been yelling about this for years.
Not a second, but for years to get this access.
So as we are rolling this out,
I just can't wait to be a part of the team,
to continue to be that community compass to push this levy.
[ Applause ]
I'm so thankful for this opportunity,
and I pray that we can bring awareness
to community members that have been impacted.
We all have a part to play in this community.
When someone is impacted or in crisis or in psychosis,
what part will you be?
How will you stand in this community?
Thank you very much.
-Ladies and gentlemen,
the bright side of addiction is recovery.
De Aunte embodies that.
Thank you, De Aunte. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your inspirational journey
of recovery with us.
Next, we're going to hear from Michelle McDaniel.
Now, she's the CEO of Crisis Connections.
Now, Michelle is a lifelong King County resident
who has dedicated over 30 years to her career
in behavioral health.
Crisis Connections -- if you're not familiar with it,
you should be --
provides free, compassionate help 24/7,
accessing and navigating the behavioral health system
throughout Washington State through programs
like Washington Teen Link Helpline, King County 211,
and serving those with a King County area code
through the 988 Crisis and Suicide Lifeline.
She's an amazing woman.
Please welcome Michelle McDaniel to the stage.
-Thank you all for being here.
And then you heard in the introduction
a little bit about Crisis Connections.
Again, we've been around since 1964.
We specialize in serving folks through our help lines,
988, regional crisis lines.
Our help lines serve as one of the primary connectors
to mental health care and substance use treatment
in King County, and actually across Washington state.
Because of my role, I see firsthand
the need for treatment and services.
People are struggling more than ever to cope.
We see this in the nearly doubling of calls,
texts, and chats that come to our helpline since early 2020.
Not only are we receiving more calls for help,
but clients are in more acute distress
and are dealing with multiple and more complex challenges.
Our adult and youth clients
report higher levels of suicidality,
more intense symptoms of depression, anxiety,
greater levels of substance abuse.
More callers report financial instability,
fear of losing their housing,
and increased struggle to keep up with the rising costs.
These challenges are significant.
That being said, this is the most exciting time
it has ever been to be a behavioral health leader
in this community.
We've talked about a lot of the wins already --
the passing of the King County Crisis Care Center levy.
It's going to build these walk-in clinics,
invest in residential services, invest in our workforce.
Thanks to the dedicated funding through a Washington
cell phone tax in July of 2022,
we successfully launched the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you to Senator Dhingra and Representative Orwall.
[ Applause ]
I don't know how much you're aware,
particularly of Senator Dhingra and Representative Orwall,
of the champion work they've been doing,
particularly in the last few years,
toward not only funding the 988 system in Washington state,
but behavioral health reform in general.
So thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Other wins, other exciting things are happening.
We are partnering -- Crisis Connections is partnering
with diverse people within the behavioral health system
toward law enforcement response diversion.
Really absolutely critical.
[ Applause ]
So we are well into planning that in 2024,
we will be embedding 988 clinicians
at two 911 centers in King County.
So again, we can divert.
[ Applause ]
Thanks to the work
of the Raising Wages for Changing Lives campaign,
for which I'm very proud to have launched and co-chaired
with the Seattle Human Services Coalition.
The Seattle City Council passed a pay equity resolution
for human service workers.
Another huge win.
[ Applause ]
And thanks to efforts led by a coalition
representing community behavioral health providers,
workers and regional governments,
state legislators passed a 15% unprecedented
15% Medicaid rate increase, effective this January.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And the last win I want to highlight
is this summer, King County also made significant investments
of $30 million in partnership
with the 5 managed care organizations,
as we heard before, and this was resulting
in 15% Medicaid rate increases for behavioral providers.
And I will let you know that because of all these wins,
I want to let you know that this September,
I was able to provide a 27% wage increase
to our frontline workers.
That's the impact of these wins.
[ Cheers and applause ]
So, as I shared earlier, at Crisis Connections,
we see firsthand the urgent need to invest
in long neglected mental health
and addiction treatment services.
As the front door to the crisis system,
our staff assess the situation and request
critical behavioral health services for our caller,
whether it's a visit from a mobile crisis team,
whether it's the next day appointments
from Community Crisis Team.
Let's shout out the Mobile Crisis Team.
[ Cheers and applause ]
A next day appointment with a clinician
in their community or other services
supported by the crisis care continuum.
But those resources are either stretched thin
or are not available at all.
Therefore, the crisis deepens.
In our community, we could not imagine a situation
where immediate and skilled care simply was not available
when someone has a physical health crisis.
How would our community react if it took 6 or 8 hours
for an EMT to arrive on scene
to care for a heart attack or stroke victim?
But that equivalent happens every single day
when a person is experiencing a mental health crisis.
So I have a question for any providers out there.
Are any of you having difficulty attracting or retaining staff?
Is it just me?
New investments in the crisis system are exciting.
We've talked about the walk-in crisis centers,
expansion of mobile crisis team, and DCR teams.
We've talked about the additional residential beds,
co-responder teams.
But here is the challenge.
We have a workforce under immense strain
and too many vacancies throughout the system.
Investing in all this is amazing.
We need to have the people to do the work.
A robust, representative, and well-supported workforce
is critical to providing quality equitable
behavioral health care.
I believe the pathway to building this diverse
and representative workforce has two things.
One, funding organizations
such that they can pay equitable wages
that truly reflect the difficulty and value
of the work that our staff are doing.
[ Applause ]
Second, reduce the financial barriers
for people that enter the behavioral health field.
The last challenge for us to work together to solve
is the need to expand access to recovery services
and life saving care to stop the opioid overdose crisis.
You all understand the magnitude of this issue.
Despite the scale of the magnitude
and the growth of this crisis,
our Washington Recovery Helpline,
a Crisis Connections program that connects people
to withdrawal management and recovery services
across Washington state,
we've had to drop our helpline hours
due to being shortly staffed --
being short staffed and loss of state funding.
Dropping the hours
of the Washington State Recovery Helpline
is the last thing we should be doing right now.
We've got to turn this around.
[ Applause ]
And I have one more idea I'd like to offer
to help not only turn these challenges around,
but also allow providers to invest
in the data collection and analysis tools
to better understand the gaps in the opportunities.
We've got to be able to assess the impact and have the data.
Thank you for data. Shout out data.
[ Applause ]
By investing in workers, facilities, and treatment,
we can create the system that we all want to see.
So, here's my last big idea -- reform our tax system
so that it is progressive and people and companies
pay their fair share.
[ Cheers and applause ]
So thank you again to our elected officials.
You have all done amazing work. All of you.
I shout out some special folks, but everyone on the stage,
I thank you for everything you've done and for being here.
And then I look forward to partnering with you all,
and my colleagues, toward a more humane behavioral health system.
So thank you.
-You know, the personal stories of recovery
are the part of the evening
that I certainly look most forward to
as we celebrate recovery.
Recovery needs to be celebrated.
Damn it. Recover out loud, please.
Next up, we have someone who is going to recover out loud.
Our final recovery speaker for the evening,
sharing another personal story of experience,
strength, and hope,
please welcome to the stage, Marjorie Drieu.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-My name is Marjorie Drieu.
I use she/her pronouns.
And on May 6th, 2019,
I got arrested on felony drug charges
and taken to King County Jail.
I told them I was in active addiction
and would go into opiate withdrawal.
They drug tested me to verify, and the nurse came back
and told me I was pregnant.
My recovery date is May 7th, 2019.
[ Applause ] Thank you.
I was put on methadone to protect my baby,
and for the first time, the detox in jail was bearable.
A very different experience than the 16 other times
I've been arrested.
I got my first court date
and thankfully was assigned to drug court.
One felony was later dismissed due to the Blake decision,
and I didn't realize the implications of that
because felonies aren't important
when you're sticking a needle in your arm every day.
Although I've lived in the U.S. since I was 10,
I'm a French citizen, and a conviction
likely would have resulted in deportation.
For 10 years until I was 17, I was a competitive gymnast.
My senior year, my doctor found
two chronic stress fractures in my lower back,
which ended my athletic career and just about broke me.
I had too much time on my hands and nothing to fill it with.
Six months after graduation,
I smoked heroin for the first time.
At the time, I had a job and a car,
but within a few months, both were gone.
My addiction was in full force,
and two years later, I shot up for the first time.
Things went downhill fast, and for the next six years,
I engaged in criminal activity ranging from petty shoplifting,
trespassing, to eventually selling drugs
to support my habit.
When my family found out I was using heroin and meth,
it was very hard on them.
My dad found a way to distance himself from my addiction,
but it made my mother physically and mentally ill.
Countless nights she drove around
looking for me on the streets,
not knowing if I was alive or dead.
She would call my phone many, many times,
but talking to her interfered with getting high,
so I ignored her calls.
Not once did I stop to think about the mental toll
my addiction had on my family.
On Christmas Eve 2015,
I showed up at my parents' house with a puppy.
I said, "This will help me get sober
because I'll have to take him out and feed him."
My thinking was so warped, I believed those words.
Yet, I just bought a puppy with no bed,
no food, and no plan.
Later on, my mom stopped by the drug house where I was staying,
took one look around, and she took my dog.
I couldn't hold down a job. My license was suspended.
I was living unsheltered and banned from most motels.
I had alienated my family
and was surrounded by people living just like me.
When I called my mom to tell her I was in jail and pregnant,
she thought this was the dog story all over again,
and her first reaction was, "You can't have this baby."
How could she not think that and be afraid
that she'd have to raise my child?
I said the same things -- I'll be responsible.
I'll stop using drugs.
Except this time, that is what happened.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you.
My son, Liam, saved my life and drug court gave me my life back.
In drug court, I worked --
In drug court, I worked with a release planner
and my amazing case manager, Lizzy Duchaine,
who clearly had my best interests at heart.
Drug court set a plan, and I gave it a chance.
[ Chuckles ] [ Applause ]
I was in jail for a month,
then released to Swedish Ballard's pregnant --
They have an inpatient program for pregnant women.
[ Laughs ]
At my court hearings,
the judge, Judge Lum, he humanized me.
I had the structure of weekly court dates
and an intensive outpatient program
at Therapeutic Health Services.
And for the first time, I felt like I had a voice.
My successes were celebrated,
and it made me want to continue on that path.
I had the structure needed to rebuild my life
and the right people to guide me through it.
After graduating from drug court,
I became a peer services specialist,
working with the same drug court
that had done so much to help me succeed.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Working side by side with Lizzie was an absolute dream come true.
My addiction, which had been so shameful previously,
was now a vehicle to help others,
and it gave me a purpose.
I was promoted to program manager
at Peer Kent about a year later,
and in my role there, I oversee justice contracts
with King County Drug Diversion Court
and South King County Municipal Courts.
In the four and a half years since I began
my recovery journey, I bought a car,
got my first promotion, opened a bank account.
[ Chuckles ]
[ Applause ]
I'm employable.
I'm a good mother, daughter, sister, and friend.
I have a relationship with my family again,
but best of all, I have my self back.
My son just turned 4 last Monday.
Whoo! [ Chuckles ]
[ Applause ]
And he gets to grow up with a present mother.
He never has to see me loaded,
and that's something I could never have achieved
without all the support that I received.
I get to help people by using my lived experience of addiction
and recovery.
And today, I have a voice.
I'm a woman of integrity, and today, I live a life
that I don't want or need to escape from.
Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Now, our legislators are going to get a chance
to respond to what they've heard here tonight.
Legislators, we'd like to welcome your comments.
Please take about a minute each.
We'd particularly be interested to hear your thoughts
about what you've heard tonight during the program,
or perhaps earlier during the roundtable discussions.
Your priorities around mental health are of concern
in substance use recovery for 2024.
And I would like to begin with Lauren.
-You know, it's fairly difficult for me to be here tonight
because the reason my feet are planted here,
my best friend Ricky, who shared his recovery story
at this forum in 2014,
the following year, in 2015,
the county prioritized Ricky's Law
as a legislative priority.
He was subsequently the photographer
at this event every year.
And Ricky died in May.
And this is a man whose husband is a doctor
and best friend is a legislator.
And our system failed him, too.
And so, I'm just here tonight, so acutely and intimately aware,
more than I ever have been, of how pressing the needs are.
And at the same time, you know,
Ricky's the one who taught me to believe in miracles.
And I heard a few miracles walk up here tonight on this stage,
and I still very much believe in miracles
and very much believe that recovery is possible for all.
And I'm working on some legislation to that effect
for the upcoming session.
Thank you. -Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you, everyone, for sharing your stories.
They are what makes this work possible.
And I'll just start off by saying that stigma
is 100% curable,
and it takes each and every one of us to work
towards ending that stigma every single day.
So thank you for sharing the stories
because that's what helps.
We have to make sure --
Yes, you can clap. Go ahead.
We have to make sure we talk about mental health,
substance use disorder the same way we talk about cholesterol.
And until we get there,
we're always going to be behind.
For the legislative session, I'll say I'm going to continue
the work around 988
and building out that crisis system.
There's some great recommendations
coming out of the CRIS committee,
and so, I'm very grateful for the work
that everyone has been doing
in working to make sure our crisis system is better.
And when we improve our crisis system,
it means we have to improve all our preventative care
as well, to make sure we no longer need a crisis system.
[ Applause ]
And a huge priority is going to be workforce.
Workforce, workforce, workforce.
So thank you for your engagement,
and we look forward to seeing so many of you
during the legislative session reminding us all
about the behavioral health priorities for next year.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-There's so much that needs to be done.
There's some things that we have done,
and there are things that you will see us doing.
And I would say, first of all, I would say, "Hello"
from Representative Lisa Callan,
who couldn't be here tonight, but right now is co-chairing
our Children and Youth Behavioral Health Care
Work Group, which I'm part of.
And if we think about this coming session,
one of the things you will see
is the Prenatal to 25 Behavioral Health Strategic Plan
recommendations that have been happening.
The meetings have been happening throughout -- since session,
and you will see a set of recommendations
that cover that full gamut.
So as we're talking about individuals
who are pregnant all the way through
individuals in our system, young people, as well as adults.
And as we think about SUD and OUD treatment in particular,
I have a focus on intersectionality.
Individuals that are in our systems of incarceration
and also in particular, our LGBTQ community,
and making sure we have access, opportunity,
ownership, and voice for all of those folks
who need support.
Looking forward to working with you this session.
-Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Well, thank you all for being here tonight
and for those who shared your stories.
Really deep gratitude, and I think it drives home
the lesson that we need to have
those with lived experience at the table.
That makes -- That helps us make better informed policy.
And as I said tonight at the table,
for our discussion, I don't know anyone in my circle
that hasn't either struggled with a mental health issue
or has someone they love
who struggled with a mental health issue.
And I have to say, tonight...
I've been thinking very much about my nephew,
who lost his struggle this last May.
And that actually came as a surprise to a lot of us.
And I think we need to understand that sometimes
the symptoms or the -- you're not going to see it
necessarily happening in someone's life.
And so, it's important to be there and to let people know.
And the stigmatization, I think, is real.
And we need to be able to deal with that.
We need to end that.
As I said tonight, it's mind, body, spirit.
And it's really important that we remember that
when we are looking at our overall health.
So just know that I am -- I'm there as a resource
and there as someone who wants to roll up my sleeves
and help make this situation better for everyone.
Thank you. -You know, this year
has been really hard coming out of COVID,
which was incredibly challenging for many of us.
I've been really quite down this year
about the number of people I know who've died
and who are struggling, and I just want to say
I'm -- I look forward to this event every year,
and we haven't been able to come together for the last few years.
And as expected, I am here tonight feeling hopeful
and inspired and very thankful to Seth and Karis
and De Aunte and Marjorie for your stories.
To the many others of you who have shared your stories with me
and the folks up here and others,
you are what makes our work possible.
For those of you who know me,
you know that I will be fighting hard
to make sure that people have the access
to the care that they deserve and that they need
and that we need for our communities.
So, I'm not giving up.
Hopefully, if you don't know me,
you'll get to know me and reach out to me
because we need to work on this together.
We owe it to each other and we owe it to our community.
And I look forward to the work
we're going to accomplish in the '24 session.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Some of you may know I've been in long-term recovery myself.
And you know what?
When I hear these stories, it just fills me with hope.
You know, I think it comes down to love.
You know, the love that these people have,
that we have for each other.
And, you know, we get to live lives beyond,
I always say beyond my mom's wildest dreams.
So I am just so grateful for the stories of hope and love
that we heard tonight.
You know, one of the things I really have been working on
since I got to the legislature
is along the lines of behavioral health,
and that's a different disorder.
It's gambling disorder, problem gambling, gambling addiction.
So, you know, we, the legislature,
we were able to double funding for treatment
of problem gambling in the state this last session.
And I'm looking forward to introducing a bill
next session to create another therapeutic court.
It'll be a gambling court to help people
get treatment instead of prison.
Because as many of you, well, some of you might know,
gambling is the number one activity in prison.
So, you know, really not the place to send people
with a gambling disorder.
I'm just so grateful for you all being here,
and just incredible stories I've heard, so thank you.
-20 years ago, I was appointed to what, at the time,
was called the King County Substance Abuse
Administrative Board, and a couple of years later,
we formed a legislative committee
and decided to hold a forum, a legislative forum.
So I actually got this started 20 years ago.
But -- But -- But wait. Neil, you're --
Neil and I have been working together for years,
but nobody showed up.
And I just wanted to follow up on Senator Dhingra's comment
that stigma is curable.
You have showed up, and we did a lot of hard work
15 years ago to try to get these f--
You know, not many people would show up,
but you are showing up, not just here,
but you're showing up for those you love,
showing up for those who really need help.
And I really want to thank you.
-Echoing all the comments to thank those
who shared their stories,
both here at the podium and also at the tables.
You can think of me for sure
as an ally fighting for behavioral health care
that's accessible and available for all people.
I also want to acknowledge that at our table,
we had many folks who are working
in the behavioral health care field,
and I want to thank you and say back to you
that I hear that you're overworked and underpaid,
and that's a systemic failure.
And we'll continue to fight for family-sustaining jobs
for all of you and for others out there.
And lastly, I'd say that I think an important part of our role
as legislators, or certainly my role
is to be an ambassador to the community,
to welcome in crisis care facilities
and other treatment services in our districts.
And I'll be there standing to make sure
that we have culturally relevant
and available care in our communities.
-Just wanting to thank everybody for putting this together
tonight and for your time,
and for the wonderful conversations at the table
and just really showing the humanity
to the amount of care that we all have
for supporting the most vulnerable.
And I think I'm part of a pretty good team up here.
And I know we're all part of a good community.
We're going to tear down every barrier
until every person has the resources they need,
and they have the ability
to live life with dignity without shame.
So thank you again.
-Thank you again for allowing us to be here.
And I'll try to help demystify
the legislative process a little bit.
But I know that oftentimes, it can be kind of confusing
and mysterious, but at the end of the day,
it's really about showing up and caring.
And the fact that you're here on a Monday night
the week before Thanksgiving shows that you care,
shows how important this is to the community.
And we take that with great pride,
with great humility in the sense
that we want to bring those stories back to the legislature
to really support and uplift the work that you're doing.
So I just want to say thank you.
-In this space in particular, I wanted to thank Karis
for sharing her story and for really raising the issue
that a lot of her mental health struggles
started when she was younger,
and that is the angle that I have continued to hammer
in the legislature, that we need to work on these issues,
not just for adults, but for children,
including starting in child care,
starting in K-12 schools,
and making sure that we are recognizing and getting kids
both the social, emotional learning that they need,
but also recognizing early interventions
and doing the work then.
And it's great to be able to partner with my seatmate
on many of those issues in the K-12 system,
in particular.
As Senator Wilson mentioned,
our colleague Representative Calan
is working on a children's mental health strategic plan,
and I'm looking forward to incorporating that
into our state's overall behavioral health strategic plan
that we are working on.
It will be a 5-year plan.
It'll be -- Which is due in about two years.
I'm honored to be co-chairing that
and look forward to really being --
focusing on prevention
as the number one aspect of that, and of course,
going all the way through everybody's needs --
behavioral health, SUD, you name it.
So thank you guys for being here
and really continuing to help put the --
the human face and the stories to the work that we do.
Sometimes when we're looking at pieces of legislation,
it can be kind of dry, but when we keep your stories
and your faces in our hearts and minds,
that makes it a reality.
And that makes us come back down to really focus
and ensure that we're doing the work
and getting it right for you.
Thank you. -Really adding to all that
my colleagues have shared,
I wanted to thank you for elevating the important work
on reforming our regressive tax system.
[ Applause ] Yes, more than that.
I need more than that so we can pass wealth tax.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Seriously.
More than that.
I need us to really talk about wealth tax.
Every single time you visit Olympia,
every single time you talk to your legislators,
I don't care if your legislators are Democrat or Republican,
because our needs, the services that our people need,
require the kind of revenue that is ambled.
And we can, and we have, and we will
because of your work, because of your help.
So that is and will continue to be my focus on the work
to ensure this revenue stream to provide these services.
But the area that I'm really focusing on
and Representative Senn mentioned it,
is around the K-12 mental behavioral health
and specifically, in our special education.
It's critically important
because public education is important.
And the beauty of public education
is that it provide that particular services
to every single child in our state.
And we heard repeatedly
from those who shared their experience,
it's from school.
And school is where our children spend so much time in,
and that is where they learn
how to socialize and interact with others.
And that is where they learn how to build their networking.
And we do not... we do not survive,
we do not strive alone.
We be better, we progress better,
we hope better together.
And so, because of that, we need to build that community
that allow the togetherness.
So thank you for your support.
-I really appreciate the sharing of the stories
that were then reinforced tonight
for the whole group of if someone has --
at the moment in time,
someone has the courage to call the crisis line,
to call or ask for help,
our duty, our moral obligation as a society and as legislators
is to make sure that the help is there.
Not just someone to pick up the phone,
but that the services are there and they are available that day,
not weeks later.
And we have so much more to do. Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Hi, everyone. Darya Farivar here.
Also in the 46. There's so much I could say right now.
And I guess what I'll focus on
is what I heard crystal clear tonight
are your powerful, powerful stories.
And I want to promise to you all that I am working hard
to institutionalize hearing from folks with direct,
lived experience on these tough, tough issues.
And I thank you for your courage
in stepping up and sharing these stories with us tonight.
The other thing I really heard was that we need more support
on both ends of the criminal legal system.
We have to create relief valves upfront
to get folks diverted into the treatment that they need,
instead of cycling people through incarceration and deep,
deep crisis.
We need to also, on the back end of the system,
make sure we're releasing folks into successful situations.
We're working on legislation to make sure
that every single person released from a state hospital
and from our correction system
have an ID to go into the community
to get connected to the services they need.
Lastly, I want to talk a little bit
about the diversion programs on the on the front end
and emphasize how important it is
that we fully fund those things like mobile crisis,
like co-responder programs that are getting to people,
as my seatmate said, as soon as they need help.
We need more programs like this,
and we have to make sure that those are consistently funded.
We secured funding last year for both LINC and LEAD,
and I'm proud of the work we did there,
and we're going to do it again this year.
Thank you. -I really loved hearing
the courage, strength, and hope up here tonight.
I love people in recovery, and I love people
working on their behavioral health stuff because --
'cause you're doing the work.
I trust you more than normies, I really do.
Like, you're doing the work, right?
You're doing it. So thank you. Thank you.
You know, we're working so hard to get these centers
sited somewhere in our cities.
And we need your advocacy.
Director Flora will join me in saying we need your advocacy
to talk to your mayors
about siting these residential centers
and behavioral health crisis care centers
in our cities.
We need people to say, "Yes, here, please,"
because it's not other people, it's our loved ones,
it's our friends, it's our family, right?
And we need to take care of them.
So if you want to work on this, reach out to me at King County.
I would love to work with you.
We need that energy. Step up.
Let's encourage our people to have a blip in their life
rather than a catastrophe,
by having the right care for them at the right time.
Thank you. -Great pleasure to be back
in person.
I look forward to this event
because I know every year coming here
that the stories I'm going to hear of recovery,
they are energizing and they are motivating,
and we all carry them with us as we head back to Olympia
and do the work that you are here asking us to do.
For all of you who work in recovery,
in substance use treatment, in behavioral health,
I know how hard that work is,
and I just want you to know that we are all here
because we appreciate you
and we appreciate the incredibly hard work that you do every day.
And I know that there may be moments in the day
when you wonder if people know about that critical work,
and I'm just here to say we do, and we thank you profusely.
It is so important,
and it's really validating to hear about the ways
in which the additional Medicaid rates for behavioral health
that the legislature was able to fund this year
have resulted for many behavioral health workers
seeing wage increases and seeing expansion in the kinds of care
that's available to people in King County.
And speaking of people who are overworked
and deserve to be paid more, I just want to acknowledge
that there's nobody that I know of worked harder
for the behavioral health rate increases
than my colleagues, Nicole Macri and Mia Gregerson,
and I just want to thank them publicly
for working so hard to make sure that that happened this year.
And I know that they're going to keep working at it,
as are all of us in the years to come.
-Thank you for your stories,
because I know one thing for certain,
one person's story is going to help the next person,
and the stories need to be told.
And I thank you for the words I didn't hear before, but love it.
Recover out loud. Keep that going.
We need to have those loud and clear,
because one day, I really hope that behavioral health care
is just health care,
and that's going to be a part of it.
And I'm so proud of King County
for having voted in our levy this year.
It's going to expand services that's most important.
People stepped up and said, "We need this."
And that's our community saying together, acknowledging that.
And that's really important.
And all these steps we take along the way.
And 988, you know,
I just mentioned to someone today,
"Do you know about 988?"
You can call it any time you need it.
Call it, please. Use it.
We got it going. It is for you. So please, spread the word.
Keep recovering out loud, and thank you.
-I want to thank you for the stories tonight.
As Joe mentioned, they're very inspiring and motivating to us.
So thank you for that.
By working together, we are actually making progress.
Let me give you five examples.
Maybe that's the best way to end this evening,
is five success stories, shall we say.
First one is that the University of Washington
is going to be opening up a new behavioral teaching hospital
a teaching and treatment hospital
up at Northwest Hospital with 150 new beds.
And that will not only care for people,
but train the next generation of workers in behavioral health.
Number two, there's a new behavioral health institute
at Harborview, and we are raising efforts
with the county to fully fund the construction
of that building and also provide services
to also develop workforce.
Third, Apple Health and Homes.
Last year, we passed Apple Health and Homes,
which is to basically have a prescription for a home.
And the basic thought is, if you are --
if you are chronically homeless
and you have a medical condition,
substance use disorder, mental health issue,
or a significant physical disability,
then you should have a home as part of your medical treatment.
This is extremely important, and not only that,
but we had a major advancement just a few months ago.
We were able, through the state Health care Authority,
to convince the federal Medicaid system
to start providing Medicaid matching funds
for the actual homes.
So we need to build on that
because that's an incredibly important thing for the future.
Fourth, I'm putting together a proposal for recovery residences
for getting funding out of the State Housing Trust Fund.
My assistant, Angela Langer, is here tonight.
She's helping us, so please contact my office,
Angela Langer, if you want to participate in that effort
to basically ask for about $25 million for funding --
capital funding -- for actually acquiring recovery residences.
Fifth, I don't think you've asked for enough.
Okay?
The workforce proposals you have is actually really good,
and I think everybody's involved with that.
But we ought to go much further than that.
In 2019, we passed the Workforce Education Investment Act.
We raised taxes on business in order to fund
free college and university tuition
for all low-income students,
but only for undergraduate and only for low-income people.
What we ought to do is expand that,
so no matter what your income is,
we will pay free tuition from the state
for undergraduate and graduate level degrees
to fill essential jobs in behavioral health,
early learning, child development, et cetera.
This is a huge opportunity
because we need to plan for the future.
So ask for more!
-I'd like to end with kind of a challenge to you folks.
I appreciate you being here tonight,
and hopefully, you'll be here next year
for the legislative forum.
And I would challenge you to bring one of your colleagues
from Olympia with you.
Someone who obviously is not here tonight,
that needs to know, that needs to hear, that needs to do.
That's your challenge going forth.
So I thank you, legislators, and other elected officials,
and I want to give a shout out to Patty Murray
and her staff.
She wanted to be here tonight, but obviously,
that was not possible.
From a federal level, boy, she is connected,
and she is concerned, and she is compassionate.
I cover the Seattle Mariners with her brother, Greg,
and I know firsthand how committed that Patty Murray is.
Other staff who are here,
members that I want to recognize,
staff Representative Lisa Callan from District 5
and the staff for Senator Jamie Pedersen,
all of them here tonight.
Could we give them all one more round of applause, please?
[ Cheers and applause ]
And ladies and gentlemen,
I encourage you to keep in touch with these legislators.
They are your voice. They are our voice.
They are people who will listen and who will react and act.
We all face changes and choices and chances and challenges.
But we're going forward.
Together forever. Backward, never.
Thank you to all the legislative staff,
our 41 co-sponsoring organizations,
all the volunteers and staff helping us tonight.
People in recovery from mental health and substance use,
you rock.
Celebrate your recovery.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thanks to the behavioral health providers,
health and human service partners,
and Christopher Archiopoli,
and our Recovery Art Showcase artists.
They did a great job.
Our language interpreters and live captioner,
our community members,
all of you folks who came out tonight.
And a giant thank you to Amanda and Kristen
for coordinating tonight's special event.
You guys did a terrific job.
Thank you very much for joining us tonight.
Always remember the bright side of addiction is recovery.
And recovery is living proof, as you have seen tonight.
Stay healthy, live in gratitude, and be kind to others.
Have a good night. Thank you so much.