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Jun
29

ITA Listening Tour

The Listening Tour plans to engage a broad cross-section of stakeholders and community across Washington State to reimagine the Involuntary Treatment Act (ITA).

Mission

We are a diverse committee embarking on a statewide listening tour, inviting stakeholders and community to reimagine the Involuntary Treatment Act (ITA) to improve public health, safety, and health equity.

Vision

The structure of these listening sessions will allow for creative conversations that bring innovative resolutions and ideas forward, centered in community. We will achieve this through grounding this listening tour in robust engagement with stakeholders, ensuring voices are heard and valued throughout the process, acknowledging the compounding health and economic equity issues of access to care for individuals within the ITA system, and honoring the significant need for cross-sector collaboration.

Values

Committed to action, we will meticulously follow through on recommendations aimed at optimizing all facets of our systems, including focusing on the overall goals of getting individuals the help they need in the least restrictive means possible; re-envisioning the ITA Court System as a more therapeutic process; emphasizing prevention and improving discharge planning and continuity of care to support the success of individuals; and ultimately fostering improved community health, safety, and well-being.

About the Listening Tour

There is broad, statewide agreement among all parts of the justice and behavioral health systems that the current ITA system fails patients and the public. There is also pent-up demand to improve the system.

As part of her 2023 election, King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion committed to working with interested parties to reimagine a more effective ITA system to improve public health, safety, and health equity.

In 2023, Manion convened a Reimagining ITA Task Force to develop a plan, statement of purpose, goals, and timeline for a forthcoming Statewide ITA Listening Tour. The listening tour launched in May of 2024.

The Listening Tour plans to engage a broad cross-section of stakeholders and community across Washington State to reimagine the Involuntary Treatment Act (ITA).

Success would mean building a coalition of individuals committed to improving the ITA system, and leveraging key insights to enact changes such that that individuals receive the help they need in the least restrictive means possible before they decompensate and commit harm to themselves or others.

Timeline

  • The Reimagining ITA Task Force began meeting in early 2024
  • The Involuntary Treatment Act (ITA) Listening Tour launched in May of 2024 will continue until the Task Force feels ready to pursue next steps

Reimagining ITA Task Force Members

  • Leesa Manion, King County Prosecuting Attorney
  • Aleksandra Letts, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney with King County and Project Manager who will oversee, guide, organize, schedule, and track progress of this statewide effort
  • Steve Strachan, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) and former Kent Police Chief and Chief Deputy of the King County Sheriff’s Office
  • Kim Mosolf, lead class counsel for AB v DSHS (Trueblood) and former Director of the Treatment Facilities Program at Disability Rights Washington
  • Sally Bagshaw, former Seattle City Councilmember and former Chief Deputy of the PAO’s Civil Division
  • Jason Schwartz, Director of the Snohomish County Office of Public Defense
  • Carmen Pacheco-Jones, Co-founder and Executive Director of Health and Justice Recovery Alliance, an organization committed to prevent, disrupt, and support restoration for individuals experiencing destabilization/crisis by addressing system barriers and providing peer-based services to improve the experiences and well-being of the participant
  • Eric Richey, Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney
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