When combined with the stresses of COVID-19, people and their families are now waiting days or even weeks to get mental and behavioral help in numbers that government officials and advocates say are the worst backlogs they’ve ever seen.
In King County, the number of people queued up for responses is more than double what’s typical, stretching the capacity of workers and leaving families in the lurch. In Snohomish County, crisis responders are fielding more referrals from jail rather than their preferred source, the community. And in Pierce County, individuals found in need of hospitalization are struggling to obtain safe transportation.
Taken together, crisis responders often find themselves in a
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