To: King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division
From: Denise D. Smith
Date: June 24, 2008
The League of Women Voters of Seattle supported the one-tenth of one cent sales tax increase to improve access to mental health and chemical dependency treatment and therapeutic court services to fund the programs outlined in the King County Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan.
We have reviewed the Evaluation Plan and support the comprehensive approach the plan takes in addressing treatment evaluation and coordination. However, it is not clear how the system level outcomes and policy goals of decreased use of emergency medical services, decreased homelessness and decreased criminal justice system involvement are to be measured in the outcome evaluation and reporting matrix. Ending homelessness is a priority issue for the League of Women Voters of Seattle and we would like to see a clearer connection between the evaluation matrix and the goals of the 10-year plan.
We understand the time constraints in completing the MIDD Oversight, Implementation and Evaluation Plan but we are concerned about the ability to conduct an open public process with such short comment periods provided. We urge that you develop a public process for future programmatic reviews that will provide the broader public, including consumers of MIDD services, adequate time for review and response.
Respectfully,
Denise D. Smith, President League of Women Voters of Seattle