King County Mental Health Courts
Class of 2011 Campaign Project
Image: Issaquah Reporter
Eight members of Leadership Eastside’s Class of 2011 became inspired by Redmond Mayor John Marchione's call to address the extreme human and financial toll of mental illness on the community. Kate Butcher, Karin Duval, Timothy Sayers, Arun L Nisargand, Paul Jensen, Pam Gill, Bill Goggins, and Ramona Clifton came together to work on improving outcomes for people suffering with mental health challenges.
“Our team of eight formed around lived experiences with mental health issues,” said team member Kate Butcher. “Whether it be a parent or child or friends, we all cared deeply for someone struggling with mental health issues. Our passion to change the system led us to partner on this important community challenge.”
The team met weekly for six months, researching all aspects of mental health’s effects on the community. A lot of time was spent mapping systems and identifying stakeholders throughout the Eastside, including from those needing support, their families, the organizations providing support, to the criminal justice system. After much diagnosing and stakeholder mapping, they decided to work with the King County Mental Health Court (MHC) in Seattle to assist in its expansion to serve all of King County.
The King County Mental Health Court is a specialized court where the judge, defense, prosecution, probation counselors, and a mental health clinician all work as a team to improve the life and outcomes for the client, reduce recidivism, and improve community safety.
Work had started on the idea of expanding this court beyond Seattle in the past, but it had never gained enough traction. The team wanted to take a new approach to the usual systematic process followed by the many sectors of the criminal justice system once a person with a mental health disorder was detained. The team focused on how the systems could work together differently so that a better outcome could emerge. The targeted outcomes they identified were:
Lessen the criminalization of mental health issues
Lessen the stigma of mental health issues
Decrease recidivism and the resulting costs to our municipalities
After many interviews with people across the King County criminal justice system, including law enforcement staff, defense attorneys, the prosecutor’s office, members of King County Council, and the Mental Health Court Judge, the court manager called a meeting with all these stakeholders. This meeting was the intervention that would shift the system. The stage was set to address concerns and how they could be overcome, as well as to voice points of view that may cause conflict and how best to mitigate them.
After the successful stakeholder meeting, the LE team responded to the need to advocate for the MHC expansion to the Eastside. The team both facilitated and showed up at many meetings to drive awareness and support throughout the community.
KCRMHC Brochure
“Our efforts helped set the stage for a petition to the King County Council,” said team member Karin Duval. “When we spoke to the council it was clear that the expansion had buy-in from all stakeholders working in the system. We heard afterwards that our clear, tactical argument went over very well with the Council who were used to hearing mostly very emotional and personal testimonies. The motion passed and after several months, our team was invited to the ribbon cutting at the first KC Mental Health Court on the Eastside. We were all given a piece of the ribbon. I still have mine.”
In 2018, DSHS produced a report on the “Impact of Mental Health Court on Recidivism and Other Key Outcomes”. This report presents results from a study examining outcomes for participants of the King County District Court Regional Mental Health court. Over a one year period, the mental health court significantly improved outcomes for participants across multiple domains. Mental health court participants had significantly lower rates of re-offending and psychiatric hospitalization, and fewer incarceration days and emergency department visits, relative to a matched comparison group.
