BHA General FAQ

• Community mental health agencies provide mental health services through contracts with the Behavioral Health Organizations.  Services could be provided at the mental health agency, in your home, or elsewhere in the community.
• Treatment services should be individualized and tailored to meet the needs of your child and family.
• Treatment modalities could be:
  • Brief intervention or individual treatment: A solution focused, outcomes oriented, time limited intervention designed to achieve goals identified in the treatment plan.
  • Medication management: The prescribing and/or administering and reviewing of medications and their side effects.
  • Medication monitoring: Cueing, observing, and encouraging consumers to take their medication as prescribed and reporting back to persons licensed to perform medication management services.
  • Psychoeducation: A set of activities that teach and explore the provision of emotional support, education, reducing stressors, resources, and problem solving skills to consumers and their family members.
  • Group treatment: Face-to-face activities provided by one or more staff to two or more individuals under the supervision of a mental health professional.
  • Family support: Support groups and advocacy to families to which there is a seriously disturbed child or adolescent.
  • Other services and supports as defined in the treatment plan.

Once your child has been referred to the CLIP Administration by the Behavioral Health Organization (BHO), he or she is placed on a waiting list for placement in one of the CLIP programs.  If your child has program specific needs (for example specifically being referred to Camano Cottage at CSTC) because of age or specific issues needing to be addressed, your child will be waiting in line for the next available spot on that cottage.  There is a high demand so the list may be long.   

There are many factors that impact the time element. 

• Psychiatrist: A person having a license to practice as a physician and surgeon in this state and in addition has completed three years of graduate training in
  psychiatry in a program approved by the American Medical Association or the American Osteopathic Association and is certified or eligible to be certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. RCW 71.34.020
• Psychologist: A person licensed by a state examining board. This person must pass an oral or written exam or both as prescribed by the examining board. In addition, this person must have a doctoral degree from a regionally accredited institution obtained from an integrated program of graduate study in psychology. This person must also have had at least two years of supervised experience of which at least was one must have been after the doctoral degree was granted. RCW 18.83.070
• MSW: A person with a masters or further advanced degree from a school of social work or a degree deemed equivalent under rules adopted by the Secretary of DSHS. RCW 71.34.020

Western State Hospital (WSH) is one of two Washington State operated psychiatric hospitals.  WSH is the regional state psychiatric hospital for 20 Western Washington counties.   Hospital treatment teams create and provide individualized intensive inpatient treatment for individuals with severe mental illness. 

Patients are admitted to WSH as a result of having received an involuntary commitment order by the court, either through a civil commitment proceeding under RCW 71.05, or a criminal justice proceeding under RCW 10.77.  There are over 500 civilly committed patients and over 200 criminally committed patients that are receiving inpatient treatment at WSH. 

The treatment facility must notify the parents in a way that will most likely reach the parent within twenty-four hours of the admission. RCW 71.34.500-530

Hospital and outpatient mental health services are available to you and your family if they are needed. Some of services include:

• Crisis services;
• Individual therapy;
• Group therapy; and
• Medication evaluation, prescription and management.

You may also receive employment support services, case management and other services through your BHO.

For more detailed information, please call the BHO for your community listed on the BHO pages or call the Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery at 1-888-713-6010.

Interpreter services are available upon request. Most written materials are translated into languages other than English based upon the service area population.

Some community mental health agencies have staff who speak other languages besides English. There is more information on the page for your BHO. If you or someone you know wants services in another language, your BHO must provide language assistance at no cost to you. Assistance can be provided both orally and in writing.

If you need mental health services, an individual service plan will be developed with you. Your plan will consider your age and your culture. You may receive one or more of the services listed above. The plan will be fit to you, according to your strengths and needs. Your mental health care provider will decide with you which services you will be provided and for how long.

Your mental health care provider may also ask permission to work with people who provide you other services such as housing, healthcare, and employment.

Other Medicaid benefits may be available to you. Here are some reference numbers:
Physical health: Contact information on back of your card
Substance Abuse: 1-877-301-4557
Transportation Broker: 1-800-562-3022/911 for crisis

• The state of Washington defines medical necessity for inpatient care as "a requested service which is reasonably calculated to diagnose, correct, cure or alleviate a mental disorder or prevent the worsening of a mental condition that endanger life or cause suffering and pain or result in illness or infirmity or threaten to cause or aggravate a handicap, or cause physical deformity or malfunction and there is no adequate less restrictive alternative available." RCW 71.34.020 (12)
• For publicly funded admissions, the RSN or the DMHP determines medical necessity for acute psychiatric care.

• A Common Voice
• Changes Parent Support Network
• National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health
• National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities 
• Passages (Spokane) - Serving Adults, Family and Youth 
• WaDads

• Mental Health Recovery (Hamilton, Ohio)
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse
• W.R.A.P.