Mental health: One foot in past, one foot in future

Our society’s failure to adequately help those suffering from mental illnesses is plain to see. Recent incidents and court rulings continue to reveal failures in Washington’s frayed mental health system.

But excellent efforts are being made locally, and a promising tool — a new mental health triage center — is set to open mid-month. The Thurston-Mason Mental Health Triage Center sits adjacent to the Thurston County jail, also known as the ARC or Accountability and Restitution Center, and is funded largely by state and pass-through dollars.

The triage center’s 10 beds, paid for by state pass-through funds, are a start on what’s needed. They improve odds of getting criminal suspects and other detainees into mental health treatment if that is appropriate.

The center promises that a humane hand will take the arm of those at society’s margins when they cross paths with police.

To glimpse the current system’s failures, one needn’t go far. There is the recent and tragically slow case of a mentally ill offender who was kept in state and Thurston County custody for a long period — three times any sentence he might receive if he is convicted for allegedly threatening someone at a Lacey pizza shop.

The issue for prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges was Farokh Jalil-Al-Ghadr’s mental fitness to stand trial in Thurston County Superior Court. Keeping him in jail was not appropriate. But there have been waiting lists for evaluation and treatment at Western State Hospital, the state’s largest psychiatric facility.

The Legislature’s recent effort to expand the state’s mental health care capacity have come too late to help Jalil-Al-Ghadr. And Western State has ongoing difficulties with staffing and accreditation.

As a result, Jalil-Al-Ghadr’s competency to stand trial on felony harassment charges has remained an open question. Judge Jim Dixon ruled recently that the accused man should be returned a third time to Western State for 90 days to see if he could regain competency, which he had achieved in the past.

This kind of labor intensive case typifies why mental illness cases are so challenging in the criminal justice venue. It is also what makes our community’s efforts so essential.

Commissioner Bud Blake said the triage center is the second of three steps he hopes to see — starting with opening the ARC in 2015 and potentially adding a detox center in Olympia at some future date.

Commissioner Cathy Wolfe notes that another improvement is in the works: a mobile crisis team that can respond directly to people with mental health issues on the streets. A private group is also planning to open a community care center in downtown Olympia.

Step by step, our community is responding to mental illness challenges that sometimes overlap with homelessness. It’s been heroic work. It’s slow work. It’s been demanding and draining.

The effort gives hope that in the longer term fewer people land in jail because of mental illness and idle there — or cause havoc on the streets, where they suffer needlessly.

As the state moves to repair its broken share of the system, defendants like Jalil-Al-Ghadr should be moved more quickly into the hands of professionals trained to handle mental illnesses — and ensure patients receive timely treatment.

As a society, we should not do any less.

This story was originally published September 3, 2016 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Mental health: One foot in past, one foot in future."