ISLAND COUNTY: County, city leaders seek healthcare expansion, higher standard of care and greater police resources

Sam Fletcher reports from a meeting of Island County leaders on legislative priorities for the Whidbey News-Times.

When state Rep. Dave Paul met with Island County and Oak Harbor leaders regarding Ituha Stabilization Facility on 10th Ave. last week, it was a conversation of substance abuse, mental health services and homelessness in terms of both capital projects and policies.

They Said It

In preparation for the 2025 legislative session, now is the time to address the most pressing needs, Paul said.

“Those are still really major issues for the community,” Paul said in an interview, “so we’re just trying to figure out the best way of addressing those.”

Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson’s ask was simple: six more beds for Ituha, a mental health facility managed by Pioneer Human Services.

The facility is often at capacity, she said. It currently has 10 beds, and an additional six will bring it up to the federal limit set for Medicaid reimbursement.

Sheriff Rick Felici agreed with the stakes of the problem.

“If I was in the business of building hotels, for example, and I had the market for 10,000 more beds, I’d sit down and I’d figure out how to build 10,000 beds, because that’s what we’re in the business to do,” he said. “If we’re in the business to provide public safety and provide these services and we have a need for 10,000 beds or whatever that number is, the energy should probably be spent on streamlining process and building beds as should the money.”

Right away, the 16-bed per-facility limit to be reimbursed for Medicaid is an “artificial” limit that doesn’t fit the business model, Johnson said.

Another obstacle is citizen uproar over mental health facilities, she said.

“The citizens are like, ‘We don’t want to see the problem, and we don’t want to provide the solution,’” she said. “Well, here’s the thing about life is to solve a problem you got to acknowledge it, and then you need to be willing to invest in the solution. You can’t say you don’t want the problem, and you don’t want the solution.”

Johnson said the federal definition of access to care is an equal number of providers and patients, but this doesn’t match reality.

“Local people are saying access to care is ‘Can I get a person into your facility? It doesn’t matter if you take our insurance. If you can’t take new patients, we don’t have access,’” she said.

Jail transportation services also have a loosely defined standard of care, she said.

“It’s like when my mom says, ‘Jill, clean your room,’ and I just shove all my clothes under the bed and I still get my $10 allowance, well yippee, until a parent comes in,” she said.

Care standards were much stricter in the past, said Commissioner Janet St. Clair.

“They weren’t pick up the phone and, ‘Oh, he’s there, that’s great,’” she said. “I’m sorry to be snarky, but it was a much more specific standard of care than that. It was about what happens when someone’s on hold in your jail and they’re suicidal, you have a response requirement.”

District Court Judge Ron Costeck requested continued funding for therapeutic court, a closely monitored program focused on holistic recovery.

These are complicated issues, Johnson said, wanting to approach them with tangible steps.

“There was a couple times in this conversation where I was like these are unsolvable problems, and this is where I just want to quit and have a margarita, like I don’t know how to fix it,” she said.

Put simply, she said that the county needs higher health care contract standards, at least six new beds for Ituha, assessment of therapeutic courts and supportive housing.

“And if you do that in one budget cycle,” she added, “I’ll feel like you did OK.”

Before the meeting adjourned, Paul responded, “Careful what you wish for. Thank you for all the feedback.”