Drafter
Clerk 6/28/2007
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AN ORDINANCE adopting the mental health recovery system implementation plan, as required by K.C.C. 2.43.015.
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BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health reported in 2003 that each year between five and seven percent of adults experience serious mental illness and between five and nine percent of children experience serious emotional disturbance.
B. Mental illnesses usually strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescent and young adulthood. All ages are susceptible, but the young and the old are especially vulnerable.
C. Without treatment, the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society are staggering. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than one hundred billion dollars each year in the United States.
D. Treatment for serious mental illness has been found to be highly effective. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, between seventy and ninety percent of individuals achieve a significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life through a combination of medications and psychosocial treatment and supports.
E. Early identification and treatment are critical. Providing access to those treatment services and other supports proven to be effective helps to accelerate recovery and minimize further harm related to the course of the illness.
F. The 2003 report of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health recognized the recovery orientation as a best practice model appropriate for public mental health agencies.
G. The Washington state legislature amended the Community Mental Health Services Act, chapter 71.24 RCW, to include recovery concepts in the 2005 session.
H. King County first recognized the desirability of moving beyond maintenance as a goal and adopted Ordin...

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