Author Archives: bookerstallworth

IN THE NEWS: Compass Health Breaks Ground on Intensive Behavioral Health Services Center

By Antoinette Alexander | 425 Business | Oct 16, 2023

Pictured: From left to right: Everett City Councilmember Paula Rhyne, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, Compass Health President and CEO Tom Sebastian, Sen. Keith Wagoner, Rep. Julio Cortes, and Compass Health Board Chair Alex de Soto.

Compass Health, a provider of behavioral health care, officially broke ground on Phase II of its Broadway Campus redevelopment in Everett, a new facility designed to address the region’s most complex behavioral health needs.

The facility is expected to be completed in summer 2025 and will include space for intensive behavioral health services, including a 16-bed evaluation and treatment unit; a 16-bed crisis triage center; intensive outpatient behavioral health services; and offices for crisis prevention, outreach, and community-engagement teams, a release said. It anticipates serving nearly 1,300 clients.

Compass Health, a provider of behavioral health care, officially broke ground on Phase II of its Broadway Campus redevelopment in Everett, a new facility designed to address the region’s most complex behavioral health needs.

The facility is expected to be completed in summer 2025 and will include space for intensive behavioral health services, including a 16-bed evaluation and treatment unit; a 16-bed crisis triage center; intensive outpatient behavioral health services; and offices for crisis prevention, outreach, and community-engagement teams, a release said. It anticipates serving nearly 1,300 clients.

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IN THE NEWS: Construction begins on Compass Health’s $68M care facility in Everett

By Sydney Jackson | Everett Herald | Oct. 12, 2023

The next phase of the Everett campus — a 72,000-square-foot facility on Broadway — is expected to serve 1,300 people per year starting in 2025.

Compass Health broke ground Thursday on the second phase of its Broadway Campus redevelopment in Everett: a 72,000-square-foot intensive behavioral health facility.

The new facility, set to open in 2025 and projected to cost $68.5 million, will serve about 1,300 people each year, according to the nonprofit. Planned services include a 16-bed inpatient evaluation and treatment unit, a 16-bed crisis triage center and various outpatient services. Plans also include a two-level parking garage. …“Large state facilities are needed,” said state Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro Woolley. “But people do better when they are closer to home.”

Facility upgrades will also help attract and retain up to 200 “world-class” employees to keep the building staffed 24/7, according to the nonprofit. Sebastian said the current workforce shortage is behavioral health care’s biggest challenge.

“Eighty cents on the dollar goes to our workforce, as it should,” he said. “We want people to feel respected for the work they do.”

Of the $68.5 million cost, the state has provided $39.7 million.

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Flag of Israel flies proudly in front of the Washington state Legislative Building in Olympia.

We strongly urge you to demonstrate Washington’s support for the people of Israel by flying their flag at the state Capitol and directing that all Washington state flags be flown
at half-staff. The surprise attack by HAMAS on Saturday, Oct. 7 resulted in the largest loss of Jewish lives in a single day since the Holocaust.

…Lowering our Washington and the United States flags to half-staff will say that we stand with all who have been murdered and oppressed by HAMAS. Flying the Israeli flag over our Capitol will say that, in our corner of the world, we stand with our friends on the front lines whose blood is being shed in the defense of freedom and the quest for peace.

Click here to read the full letter of support. 

Click here to watch video of the Israeli flag flying over the Capitol.

IN THE NEWS: State lawmakers strike deal to ensure drug possession remains a crime

By Jerry Cornfield | Washington State Standard | May 15, 2023

State lawmakers announced an agreement Monday to toughen the penalty for drug possession and expand pathways into treatment and away from jail for those arrested.

The deal comes hours before legislators convene a special session and, barring another setback, will erase the threat that possession of illicit drugs becomes legal in July.

Late Monday, legislative leaders were still confirming that they had enough support among their members to pass the measure. A vote could come as soon as Tuesday.

“I won’t call what we have done a Blake ‘fix’ but it is certainly an ‘improvement’ and I believe it will save lives and make our communities safer for everyone. If I didn’t believe that, I would not be voting for it,” Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro Woolley, said in a text. Wagoner was the lead negotiator for his caucus.

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IN THE NEWS: Gov. Inslee signs bill designating January as Americans of Chinese Descent Month in Washington

KIRO TV

Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law Tuesday designating January as Americans of Chinese Descent Month, making Washington the first state in the country to honor Chinese Americans in such a way.

Senate Bill 5000 was sponsored by Sen. Keith Wagoner (R-Sedro Woolley) and was the first measure introduced in the Senate for the 2023 regular legislative session. The bill designates each January in Washington as Chinese American/Americans of Chinese Descent History Month.

“Today is the culmination of years of hard work by members of the Chinese-American community,” said Wagoner. “Linda Yang and Asians for Equality were joined by parents, schoolchildren, educators, small business owners and others who brought the measure to me, raised awareness – both inside and outside of their community – and worked diligently for years to see this historic day.”

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IN THE NEWS: Compromise calls for honoring Chinese community each January

By Jerry Cornfield | Everett Herald

This January, in public schools across Washington, students may spend time learning of the contributions of Chinese-Americans in this state’s history.

And achievements of Americans of Chinese descent as well.

A bill headed to the governor for signing would designate January as Chinese American/Americans of Chinese Descent History Month and encourage acknowledging of the state’s complicated history with the Chinese community.

The mission “is to provide our schools the tools, our students the education and our citizens the long overdue recognition they deserve,” said Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley, prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5000.

It’s been an unexpectedly difficult journey for the legislation.

Wagoner introduced a bill the past three sessions. This year’s version was two paragraphs long. It sought to make it Americans of Chinese Descent History Month.

Click here to read the full article.