Lynnwood crisis center prepares to open after years of delay

LYNNWOOD - After almost five years of political discussions, multiple searches for providers and millions of dollars in funding, a new level of mental health care is coming to Snohomish County.

A mental health crisis center, operated by community health provider Sea Mar, will offer 24/7 services to community members regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. It will also take drop-offs from first responders. Officials hope the center at 19321 44th Ave. W., just north of I-5 and west of Alderwood mall, will help relieve pressure on hospital emergency departments and the adjacent Lynnwood Jail.

Patient areas are set up, furniture is in place and staff have been hired. Once the state health department approves licensing paperwork, expected in a matter of weeks, the center will open 18 chairs where people can stay for up to a day. They'll be able to stabilize, receive urgent mental health and substance use care, and start medication-assisted treatment for opioid use.

The center has represented the political and financial challenges of creating a new level of care in Washington. But on a sunny Monday morning, a mariachi band played as local elected officials, healthcare providers and first responders gathered at the front entrance of the center for a ribbon-cutting.

"Today we are creating a promise of a place of dignity, healing and hope," Sea Mar Chief Behavioral Health Officer Claudia D'Allegri said at the ceremony. "This center represents hope … hope for a more compassionate and effective crisis response system, where we find the right place for our behavioral health clients who are in crisis."

How the center began

Conversations about the center started in the summer of 2021, after Tirhas Tesfatsion died by suicide in the Lynnwood Jail as the city was making plans to build a new jail, police station and courthouse.

Community protests that ensued were an "inflection point in the city's history to recognize that we could do things better," police Chief Coleman Langdon said at the ribbon-cutting.

The city decided to adjust the plans, reducing the size of the new jail by 30% and instead creating a mental health crisis center in the same building. County and state funding paid for the construction - but the state was still figuring out how reimbursement and billing would work for the center, a new model in Washington state.

Recovery Innovations, an Arizona-based mental health provider, had been in talks with the city to run the center and partnered on the design process. But as the center was nearly ready to open, the provider "disappeared," state Rep. Lauren Davis said, and largely pulled out of operating in Washington state due to concerns that the reimbursement model wasn't sustainable.

The center sat empty as the city had to restart the process of finding a provider. Last summer, it announced Sea Mar had won the contract for the center.

"This was supposed to be 36 jail beds, and it's not," said Davis, who played a major role in advocating for the center and securing funding. "It's a place of healing and hope, of refuge and resilience."

Plans for the future

Sea Mar inherited a completely constructed center, but had to install computer systems, create medical protocols and set up the building's key card access. Hiring staff has been a challenge, D'Allegri said, but the new facility's workforce will be augmented by staff at other Sea Mar locations who will spend part of their work weeks at the Lynnwood center.

Once the company is able to hire enough staff, it will open a 16-bed crisis stabilization unit on another floor, where voluntary patients can stay for up to two weeks. D'Allegri hopes that will happen in three to four months. Sea Mar is also working with the health department to get licensing to provide evaluation and treatment services for involuntarily committed patients.

Sea Mar runs a wide range of clinics, including behavioral health and substance use care, and sees the center as an entry point for patients to access more services, D'Allegri said.

How centers like this one will stay afloat financially is still an ongoing question - the state hasn't ironed out how it will fund services for patients who aren't covered by Medicaid or commercial insurance. And as federal Medicaid changes loom, the state estimates that hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians could lose their coverage.

The next legislative session, when lawmakers will pass a two-year budget, is an important determining point, said JanRose Ottaway Martin, executive director of the North Sound Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization.

"This project has faced its share of challenges over the years," Ottaway Martin said at the ribbon cutting. "There have been funding hurdles, provider transitions, and moments when progress seemed uncertain, but through persistence, collaboration, and a shared commitment to serving our neighbors, we are finally here."

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