Updated Feb. 22 with the center’s policy on payment for services.

The City of Lynnwood hosted a virtual open house earlier this week for community members to learn more about its proposed Community Recovery Center.

An emergency behavioral health facility, the recovery center would be located adjacent to the already-approved Lynnwood Community Justice Center — a $69 million redevelopment of the city’s police department, jail and municipal courts.

Following the death by suicide of a woman in the Lynnwood jail last year, former Mayor Nicola Smith created a task force to explore options for a mental health facility near the jail. The task force reallocated 5,000 square feet on the first floor of the building and added two more stories, creating a 15,000-square-foot, three-story recovery center. This reallocation reduced the number of jail beds from 120 to 83.

During his presentation at the Tuesday open house, Chief of Police James Nelson explained that the center’s first floor would consist mostly of staff offices and the second floor would be for short-term patients who are released within 24 hours. The third floor would hold the intake area as well as beds for patients who need to stay a little longer. 

“This [recovery center] takes a ton of work out of both jails and ERs, because those are the only two options we have in our area,” Nelson said. “There [aren’t] other facilities that we can access with crisis stabilization.”

Jamie Sellar, the chief strategy officer of RI International – which operates similar recovery centers nationwide and will be operating the Lynnwood center– talked about how important the recovery center would be to the community. Sellar said suicide rates nationwide have risen 25% since 2014.

“We realized that why people were dying in mass numbers was that they didn’t have access to appropriate behavioral health care,” Sellar said.

The recovery center will have a “No wrong door” model when it comes to admitting patients, either voluntarily or involuntarily, according to Sellar. The “No wrong door” model means that everyone who comes through the recovery center doors will be admitted and will be helped, which is something that a hospital emergency room can’t do.

This policy also ensures minimal barriers when it comes to helping patients.

“So when we really start to talk about what our barriers for this program are going to be, first and foremost: it has to be no barrier,” Sellar said. “The only barrier that we would have for entry into this facility is going to be age. From a licensing viewpoint, we wouldn’t be able to take 12-year-olds; we wouldn’t be able to take 15-year-olds. The state doesn’t like co-mingling of adults and adolescents. We certainly understand that and respect that. But there wouldn’t be a reason that we wouldn’t accept someone that is 18 or over.”

Care will also be provided regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Sellar clarified after the meeting that money is usually the biggest barrier to why individuals don’t seek help, and the center doesn’t want that to deter anyone from receiving services.

“This is health care, and we work with all potential health care funders,” Sellar said. “It is rare that a person does not have insurance and does not meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid. We help those that are uninsured and meet eligibility requirements get enrolled. For those that do not have insurance and are not eligible for Medicaid, we still provide care without a charge to them.”

Sellar went on to say the Recovery Center would not look like a typical mental health facility. Rather than the muted, sterile appearance typical of most places, the city is exploring options for a more friendly, “living room” presence. The center will feature warm, bright colors, mural paintings on the walls, comfortable chairs and as much natural light as possible.

Sellar also said that unlike other mental health centers, there will be no plexiglass dividers between patients and staff. Patients’ comfort is the number-one priority, and he said plexiglass can make some feel distanced and unwelcome.

The total project will cost around $17 million. Snohomish County has already provided $3 million, the city has applied for a Department of Commerce grant for $1.9 million, and the remaining $12 million will be requested from the state capital budget, said 32nd District State Rep. Lauren Davis, who served on the task force.

Davis commended the city and RI International staff on how quickly the project is moving. With a new nationwide 988 suicide prevention hotline being activated this July, Davis said it was beneficial that both efforts will be completed in a relatively short time span. The Recovery Center is expected to be finished by October 2023.

“If 911 leads to police and fire, then what does 988 lead to?” Davis asked. “You need to have a physical place to take people who are experiencing behavioral health emergencies and we don’t have any in South Snohomish County. This couldn’t be better timed.”

Having been a part of several mental health facility plans before, Davis said plans like this usually take five to six years to be built. Lynnwood’s Recovery Center, however, was only envisioned last July.

“The amount of work that’s been done in this short period of time is truly herculean,” Sellar added.

During the community question-and-answer period, one community member asked if any of the team members were worried about having to turn people away due to full capacity.

Sellar said that while legally the center is not allowed to have more long-term patients than they have beds, it can be a little more flexible when it comes to short-term patients there for less than 24 hours.

“Our goal is to stabilize and get [patients] back out into the community,” Sellar said. 

The center will never turn away patients who come in or are brought in by police, regardless of their capacity. Since most patients will be short-term stays, chairs will routinely be opening throughout the day.

The center is not designed to house patients who need in-depth, long-term care for more than a few days, nor is it designed to house the homeless population of Lynnwood, Sellar added.

Another community member asked why the jail and Recovery Center were designed to be attached to one another rather than be two separate entities.

Davis said that while it may seem odd, the attachment of the buildings has many added benefits. Because of their proximity, this allows individuals who are already incarcerated to receive both medical and mental health care that they would otherwise not be able to if the buildings were separated.

Answering multiple questions about safety, Sellar said the center’s number-one concern was about the safety of all involved. While there will not be security guards in the center, the entire staff will go through extensive de-escalation training to handle hazardous situations inside the facility. With this extensive training, Sellar said that none of the RI International facilities have had to call police for assistance since before 2014.

He also went on to say that the facility will only use force with patients as an absolute last resort. 

“[We’re] definitely not a fan,” he said. “That is not something that we want to do. If that’s the case, we’re going to do what we need to do to ensure the safety of [the patient] and the community. But like I said, it is definitely going to be that last resort.”

Davis said if community members would like to get involved and show support for the Community Recovery Center, they should contact local lawmakers to let their voice be heard. So far, she said, the community has been supportive of the center, and she hopes it stays that way.

 “People don’t recover in treatment; they recover in community,” Davis said.

— by Lauren Reichenbach