Thanks to the voter-approved Crisis Care Centers (CCC) Levy, King County is expanding its services that offer immediate mental health and substance use care for people in a moment of crisis, including:
- Someone to Call (988)
- Someone to Respond In-Person (Mobile Response Crisis Teams)
- Somewhere to Go (Crisis Care Centers)
- Someone to Follow-Up (Post-Crisis Follow-Up Teams)
Less than two years into implementing the CCC Levy, teams across DCHS, our provider network and communities have come together to be in community and make major progress building out this more robust and modern system. Already, we have more capacity to help everyone in King County who needs urgent mental health or substance use care, regardless of insurance or ability to pay. This progress comes after decades of inadequate funding, facing compounding behavioral health crises including post-pandemic, the opioid overdose crisis, youth mental health crisis, and workforce crisis.
Early CCC Levy Investments Are Giving Communities Relief
Today, all the early investments in the CCC Levy Implementation Plan are in place and funding to sustain expanded services will continue through the life of the levy. These investments expanded access to 988, added more mobile crisis response teams for adults and youth, boosted King County’s response to the opioid overdose crisis, preserved residential treatment beds, and supported the behavioral health workforce.
At the same time, we made progress creating a regional network of five Crisis Care Centers, the initiative’s top priority. Our first center, Connections Kirkland, is now open and recently began welcoming youth ages 4-17 for urgent care. The second Crisis Care Center is expected to open in Seattle on First Hill as early as 2027. MultiCare will operate the future center in South King County, and a site will be selected in partnership with local jurisdictions this year.
The Request for Proposals (RFP) for the future East Crisis Care Center is now open and the RFP to select a provider to operate the youth center is coming soon. Check out our latest blogs to learn more about Crisis Care Centers:
- North: Connections Health Solutions to operate first Crisis Care Center in Kirkland
- New Youth Mental Health Urgent Care Now Open in Kirkland
- Central: Connections Health Solutions selected as operator for future Seattle Crisis Care Center
- South: MultiCare to Operate Future South King County Crisis Care Center
- East: RFP for a Crisis Care Center in East King County is now open
Breaking the Cycle: Post-Crisis Follow-Up Care
Crisis Care Centers have robust discharge protocols that help everyone who is seen get home or back to their community and connect to the supportive services they need for their long-term health. Patients who need a higher level of support when they leave a center can get that from our new Post-Crisis Follow-Up Teams when they launch later this year.
King County is the first in the nation to have a fully connected crisis system with such intentional and thorough follow-up and recovery services to help break the cycle of repeat crises. In February, we awarded Post-Crisis Follow-Up Teams to be operated by Consejo, Purpose. Dignity. Action and Sound Behavioral Health. These community-based teams will serve clients at the Crisis Care Center in Kirkland, then eventually expand to all Crisis Care Centers as they open.
Most important of all, more people are getting the care they need in a crisis and we’re seeing relief and new capacity across the behavioral health system:
- In 2025, the King County crisis system served almost 106,000 individuals. A majority, nearly 82,000, are anonymous individuals served by crisis lines, including 988.
- More than 3,600+ people were served through 5,400+ visits to the first Crisis Care Center, Connections Kirkland, in 2025.
- Mobile Crisis Response Teams for adults and youth received nearly 6,400 referrals in 2025.
- Crisis counselors are now embedded 24/7 in South King County’s 911 call centers. Last year, they resolved nearly 99% of the 1,843 calls diverted to 988 between April and December, easing the burden on 911’s emergency responders.
- Vending machines funded by the CCC levy at Peer Seattle, Peer Kent, Maleng Regional Justice Center, YouthCare Orion Center and Compass Day Center provide free access to naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and other harm reduction supplies. Vending machine users have reported using naloxone they got to respond to over 800 overdoses to date.
- King County’s Designated Crisis Responders are responding faster to community referrals, in less than 11 hours on average. The new mobile crisis response teams now respond first to help people in crisis, offering less-restrictive care, and new full-time screener positions are making a difference too.
- Outpatient providers in King County’s Integrated Care Network share having more capacity and appointments for routine care available today.
Expanding Residential Treatment
One of the goals of the Crisis Care Centers initiative is to expand equitable access to residential treatment in King County and add 115 new mental health residential treatment beds that were lost in recent years.
This year, the initiative awarded $20 million in funding to:
- The Seattle Indian Health Board for the new Thunderbird facility for substance use treatment.
- Aristo Behavioral Health for 16 new mental health beds at their treatment facility in Renton.
In 2024, an early investment of $15 million helped preserve existing residential treatment beds at six local facilities. Future funding awards creating more new residential treatment beds are expected in 2026.
Strengthening the Behavioral Health Workforce
Supporting behavioral health workers is a key part of the Crisis Care Centers Levy, which will invest more than $160 million over nine years in the behavioral health workforce, which has struggled to maintain staffing levels nationwide.
In 2025, 37 community providers received and implemented investments to strengthen and support their workforce. Here are some of the results:
| Total # of unique staff who benefited from wellness and career development programs funded by the CCC Levy in 2025 | 3686 |
| Total # of clinical staff who received clinical supervision. | 1377 |
| Total # of staff who renewed a license. | 603 |
| Total # of interns supported. | 436 |
| Total # of staff who obtained a license. | 230 |
And this year, we’ve already made great progress:
- We selected the Behavioral Health Institute at Harborview Medical Center (BHI) to create a Crisis Training Academy that will train more workers in crisis care.
- 20 community providers opted into SEIU 1199’s BEAM Training Fund program to support professional development and training activities for their workers.
- We celebrated the YMCA’s Heritage University graduating the first cohort of its free Masters of Mental Health, which the levy helps fund.
Additionally, as of December 2025, 15 apprentices have participated in SEIU Healthcare 1199’s Behavioral Health Apprenticeship program, which the levy helps fund locally in King County.
Being In Community
King County’s CCC Levy team hosted over 100 community conversations, presentations, and listening sessions in 2025, including in Spanish, Somali, and Hindi, as well as monthly virtual meetings. We continue to host monthly virtual community meetings, as well as events in community.
Here’s what’s coming up:
- Monthly Virtual Meeting: April 22 at 2 p.m. on Zoom
- Info Session with First Hill Baptist Church Congregation in Seattle
- Community Provider Meeting with Peer WA in Seattle
- Somali Community Conversation with Somali Health Board in Tukwila
- Spanish Community Conversation with NAMI Eastside in Redmond
We are always available for community meetings, events and presentations. You can reach out to us to get something scheduled by emailing ccclevy@kingcounty.gov.
This year, we are initiating the process to create a new Trusted Leader Network—especially from BIPOC, immigrant, refugee, LGBTQ+, disability, rural, and other historically underserved communities—to help shape how the Crisis Care Centers system is built, delivers services, and is held accountable to community.
Interested in more results and data? DCHS is preparing a Crisis Services Data Brief and will publish the CCC Levy 2025 Annual Report this summer. Here is a link to last year’s report: 2024 Crisis Care Centers Annual Report – King County, Washington
