Hanford, WA ‘shooting’ alert was a false alarm, but the panic and anxiety were real

The Tri-Cities was on high alert Tuesday after reports of possible shots fired at the Hanford site spread a subdued, yet terrible panic throughout the community.

The Tri-City Herald provided updates as frequently as possible while Hanford Patrol and other Tri-City law enforcement officers checked out the possible danger. Fortunately, police officials eventually determined the shooting was a false alarm.

And while Tri-Citians were relieved in the end, the experience still left people shaken.

It was only a few weeks ago when a routine day was shattered by a deadly shooting at the Richland Fred Meyer. The man charged in that case, Aaron C. Kelly, 39, was reportedly spiraling mentally in the weeks and months ahead of the Feb. 7 shooting. He has since been ordered by Benton County Superior Court to undergo a mental health evaluation.

We said at the time of Kelly’s arrest that mental health services in the Tri-Cities are woefully inadequate to meet the needs of the community’s growing population, and that Benton and Franklin counties must assure the public that progress is being made to remedy this deplorable situation.

Last year both the Benton and Franklin county commissions made the smart move to tack on an extra penny to every $10 in sales in order to put money toward a substance abuse recovery center and mental health facility in the Tri-Cities.

As it happens, commissioners on both sides of the river met recently to form a bi-county advisory committee to help direct how to use that extra tax money for mental health and detox services.

The advisory board will include 16 voting members and 7 non-voting members coming from a variety of backgrounds that include law enforcement, mental health officials, substance abuse experts, people with related life experiences and other citizens.

While talks are still underway between Benton County and LifePoint Health to turn the old Kennewick General Hospital building into a safe place for people to go for addiction and mental health treatment, it is encouraging that efforts are moving forward to see what other services might be made available through the new tax.

Several communities have mobile crisis teams that go to people in need of help. Typically, the response team gets referrals from citizens who personally know someone in distress, or who see someone on the street in obvious need of help.

Once crisis team members make contact, they can guide those who are struggling. They can help get them meals, shelter, clothing, medical treatment and other basic needs. The best thing about the service is that people in need can finally get plugged in to the social service network.

This is the kind of service that the Tri-Cities could implement while waiting for the recovery center to be completed. And this is just one example. Once the advisory board gets going, who knows what other creative approaches might be suggested?

The Tri-Cities is the only major metropolitan area in Eastern Washington without a detox center, which means the jails in Benton and Franklin counties often end up being the default location for addicts.

The jails also end up with far too many people who should be in a bed in a mental health facility instead of a cot in a cell.

We hope that Benton County and LifePoint Health, which owns Trios Health in Kennewick and Lourdes Health in Pasco, will be able to come to an agreement soon so the community can get the mental health facility and detox center it so desperately needs.

With the new center and an advisory board guiding the community approach to mental health services, the Tri-Cities will be able to make a huge difference in the lives of many who are suffering.

Adding more treatment options for those living with drug addiction and mental health issues is no guarantee against another random shooting in the Tri-Cities, but it certainly has to help our odds.

County officials are pushing ahead. Now all they need to do is quicken the pace.