Playing 52 Pick Up with a House of Cards: Behavioral Healthcare for Juvenile Justice Involved Youth in King County

Abstract

The behavioral health care needs of juvenile justice involved youth in King County are not being met. This project aimed to show that the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Tax Act (MIDD) collected within King County was predominantly to blame for this lack of care through misguided management of funds directed at supporting this vulnerable population. Through a deep policy review of the previous and current itinerations of the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Tax Act, and through the conducting of stakeholder interviews, it has become clear that MIDD alone is not to blame for a lack of behavioral healthcare services for juvenile justice involved youth, but, rather, it is a combination of lacking incentives for clinicians to work within the adolescent-based behavioral healthcare system as well as a lack of collaborative efforts between both MIDD and community behavioral health providers to ensure access to such care for the juvenile justice involved population who may be required to seek and complete such care services as part of their criminal adjudication processes.