Clark County Mental Health Services
Phone: (360) 696-9560, if you are NOT a Medicaid-eligible consumer.
Toll Free: (800) 626-8137, if you are a Medicaid-eligible consumer.
Additional websites:
http://www.co.clark.wa.us/mental-health/
Frequently Asked Questions:
http://www.co.clark.wa.us/mental-health/faq.html
What a scramble today turned out to be.
It's our medium's blessing and our curse. The blessing is we are immediate. We can bring you a story right away. The curse is that usually doesn't jive with our interview subjects schedule.
It's hard to put together a quality story in such a short amount of time. After spending the morning on the phone, my first interview happened at 1:45pm and the second at 2:30pm. I talked to Dr. J. Michael Albrich at the new Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital who had worked previously in a similar capacity at a Legacy hospital in Portland. Then we jetted over to the new Clark County Community Services building to speak with Cheri Dolezal.
We flew back to the station and set about getting this story on the air by 6. The producer spared an extra 10 seconds today so I was very lucky, but even so I had to leave out some information I wanted to share.
Cheri tells me the state recently listed Clark county as number one in the state in terms of the array and variety of mental health services available. Clark county also trained some 200 "first responders" in dealing with the mentally ill. A first responder is basically anyone who might show up to your house if you call 911-- police, fire, paramedics. The county will train more people in September.
And Cheri had nice things to say about Washington state lawmakers after they recently gave an additional 130 million dollars (80 million last year, another 50 in the short session) to fund mental health services.
And finally, in terms of the 700 people underserved... Cheri says Clark county performs at about the state average... an average she is always looking to improve. Many of those 700 people are hispanic according to special mapping the county does to determine who is getting left behind. As a result, the county is working on more outreach for that underserved population.
Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com
And an interesting note from a reader of this blog... any of you ever go through one of these??
Hi Steph...
Was meaning to share this with you, but I've been busy at work and at home (all the nice weather and all!).
A year ago, I went to Hong Kong and China (my old stomping grounds) with my wife and in-laws. In Beijing, 4 out of the five of us got very sick with a respiratory ailment. Rarely have I ever gotten something that really prevented me from doing anything other than laying in bed, but I tell you, I was in bad shape with a fever, nausea, et al. It really put a damper on the visit.
Anyhow, as we were navigating Beijing's choking traffic to catch our flight back to Hong Kong, I was talking to our cab driver (polishing up my Mandarin), I told him I was sick and he said "You know, if you have a fever they won't let you fly." I assured him I didn't have a fever, while crossing my fingers behind my back as I wasn't entirely sure if I had one or not.
We boarded the flight and landed in Hong Kong. There, all inbound flights originating in China require passengers to pass through this Sci-Fi looking infrared sensor. It looked like a small turnstile, but with a large LCD screen showing the heat signatures of everyone that passed through it. Airport officials asked me to remove my ball cap, and I passed through hoping that whatever fever I had was gone. I was nervous that men in white suits would jump out and throw me in a quarantine room.
Luckily, I was a normal temperature. I learned this sensor was there to detect high body temperatures that might indicate SARS or the bird flu. The next day, just to be safe, my wife's family (they live in Hong Kong) spirited me to a hospital where I got some medication, and was declared 'bird flu free'..apparently I only had some other less serious flu.
I'm glad they take it seriously there..as any outbreak could be a deadly situation.
Wow!!! I wonder if our crews will have to go through something like that when KGW travels to China for the next Olympics?!
