Drafter
Clerk 12/31/2012
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AN ORDINANCE adopting a framework for behavioral health services in King County, amending Ordinance 15327, Section 3, and K.C.C. 2.43.005, Ordinance 15327, Section 4, and K.C.C. 2.43.015 and Ordinance 15327, Section 5, K.C.C. 2.43.025 and adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 2.43.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The World Health Organization reported in 2004 that the United States has the highest annual prevalence rate of twenty-six percent mental illness among a comparison group of fourteen developing and developed countries.
2. According to the 65th World Health Assembly held in May 2012, adolescents are perceived as a healthy age group, yet an estimated twenty percent of them experience a mental health problem. Depression is the main cause of worldwide disability among adolescents, and suicide is the second most common cause of death among young people.
3. In the King County results of the statewide 2010 Healthy Youth Survey, twenty-four percent of eighth graders, twenty-seven percent of tenth graders and twenty-six percent of twelfth graders self-reported feeling depressed. Poor mental health is strongly related to other health conditions and affects development outcomes in young people, including lower educational achievements, substance abuse, violence and poor reproductive and sexual health.
4. According to the 2009 federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 23.5 million people aged twelve or older needed treatment for illicit drug or alcohol abuse problem. Only 2.6 million, or eleven percent, of those who needed treatment, received it at a specialty facility.
5. States adopting recovery concepts as the guiding policy for their behavioral health systems include Texas, Vermont, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Delaware, California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The recovery approach is also guiding services in New Zealand, Australia, Israel, the Un...

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