This week, King County Executive Dow Constantine’s plan to implement the Crisis Care Centers initiative was unanimously approved by the King County Council, ushering in one of the largest investments in the region’s behavioral health system. 

King County will invest more than $1 billion over the next nine years to create five new walk-in clinics called “crisis care centers.” The centers are places anyone in King County can go anytime, regardless of insurance or the ability to pay, to get help for any behavioral health challenge.  Each center is expected to be able to serve as many as 14,000 people a year.  

To kick off the process of determining locations for the first three crisis care centers, this fall DCHS will release the first request for proposals to select operators. The first crisis care center is expected to open by 2026 and all five centers are planned to be operational by 2030.  

In the meantime, DCHS will begin implementing early investments to expand the county’s crisis services today to provide some immediate relief to our community members starting this year.  

Early Investments 

Today you can text or call 988 or 206-461-3222, to talk to local crisis counselors, if you or a loved one need help during a mental health and/or drug or alcohol related crisis.  

We are also expanding our mobile crisis teams for when a person in crisis needs someone to go help them but doesn’t need police.  

The crisis teams are trained mental health workers who travel across the county to help people where they are in a crisis, responding in under an hour on average. King County will add 12 new teams for a total of 32 to reach more people.   

Additional investments in 2024 include:  

  • Supporting the county’s 13 actions to stop the surge of opioid overdose deaths, announced in March, such as expanding community access to naloxone. 
  • Directing $15 million in funding to up to three residential treatment facilities to preserve the current supply of community residential treatment beds and prevent further loss. This Request for Applications is now available. 
  • Expanding Crisis Connections new program placing its crisis counselors in 911 call centers to help people who call for a mental health crisis.  

Strengthening the Workforce 

King County is also investing in the behavioral health workforce to train more workers to help people with their mental health or drug and alcohol use. Here are resources and ways to get involved in that effort: 

Join our Workforce Development Learning Collaborative Meetings. The King County Behavioral Health Workforce Development (KCWD) Learning Collaborative provides a platform for attendees to convene and exchange current projects, best practices, and facilitate collaboration within the realm of behavioral health workforce projects. Please email bhrdworkforce@kingcounty.gov to register for the monthly meeting series! 

Career resources to explore include: 

New Community Survey 

While King County works to build the crisis care centers, we want to hear from as many people and communities as possible.  

A new community survey is available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Ukranian, Russian, Korean, Punjabi, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified and Amharic. Please take 5 minutes to take it today and share this link widely with friends, family, coworkers and neighbors across King County: https://forms.office.com/g/DWj1K1CfFf.  

For Somali, please use this Somali Community Survey link.  

We are hosting conversations for groups too, virtually and in-person with interpretation available. Please reach out to Idabelle Fosse at: idfosse@kingcounty.gov to schedule a conversation for your organization or community group.  

For more information about the Crisis Care Centers initiative and our survey visit: www.kingcounty.gov/crisis-care-centers.