Metropolitan King County Council 516 Third Ave., Rm. 1200 Seattle, WA 98104 Phone: 206-296-1000 Toll Free: 800-325-6165 TTY/TDD: 206-296-1024 Fax: 206-296-0198 council@kingcounty.gov |
Oct. 6, 2008 Overlooked groups now part of Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action PlanGang intervention strategies adopted as part of overall planThe Metropolitan King County Council today adopted the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency (MIDD) Action Plan with an important amendment introduced by Councilmember Larry Gossett that reinforces the County’s commitment to promote equity through treatment programs and strategies for communities of color and youth involved with gang violence.
“Violent crime has decreased in our region on a consistent basis over the years, but there has been an alarming increase in gang activity, gang-related homicide and other violent crime, especially within the African American community,” said Gossett. “From my personal knowledge, there have been at least ten deaths of young African American men that are believed to have been related to gang violence. We must address this violence because it is both a public safety issue and a tragic loss of human life.”
The primary purpose of the MIDD Action Plan is to provide the mentally ill and chemically dependent with services before they go to hospital emergency rooms or become part of King County’s criminal justice system. Currently, there are no prevention or intervention programs specific to gang-involved individuals in King County. Councilmember Gossett believes it is extremely important and appropriate for the MIDD Plan to help address this matter since:
• It is estimated that 65 percent of youth detained in King County’s Juvenile Detention Facility are diagnosed with a mental illness, and the majority of those suffer from both mental health AND substance abuse disorders.
• While King County has an 8.3 percent African American population, blacks make up approximately 40 to 45 percent of both adults and juveniles incarcerated in King County.
• African American males are disproportionately diagnosed with mental, emotional, behavioral and learning disabilities often before they reach their teens
“We understand that we must take responsibility for the ills within our community, but to address those ills, it is necessary to address the root causes,” said Gossett. “I look forward to working with the MIDD Oversight Committee and other mental health providers to develop new strategies that will provide culturally relevant mental health and substance abuse services targeted to youth and young adults of color who have experienced violence.”
Racial disproportionality in King County’s criminal justice system and gang violence have been important policy issues for Councilmember Gossett over the years. Last year, Gossett joined with community members to form the Black-on-Black Crime Prevention Coalition to develop community strategies to address these issues and to work with the city of Seattle to develop Mayor Nickels’ Youth Initiative that was unveiled last week.
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