Prevention advocated as part of mental-illness treatment

David Brenna wants people to think about mental illnesses the same way they would other kinds of diseases.

For instance, imagine a doctor treating someone for a heart attack but not telling the person to eat a healthy diet and to get more exercise.

Brenna, a senior policy analyst from Gov. Christine Gregoire's office, said that's the equivalent of what the mental-health system does now — treats illnesses when they become crises without putting an effort into prevention.

Brenna met this week with area mental-health advocates in Kennewick to gather ideas for the governor's Mental Health Transformation Project, a statewide initiative aimed at reforming the mental-health system and taking a more preventive approach to mental-health care.

He'll take ideas from community meetings across the state to a mental-health summit May 13 in Tukwila, where participants will vote on which policies they'd like to see adopted.

At the top of the list for several of the people who attended a meeting Tuesday was early intervention for children showing signs of mental illness.

Sue Delucchi, executive director of Safe Harbor Crisis Nursery, said she's seeing younger and younger children expelled from school because of zero-tolerance policies, and she's not sure that's the best solution.

"We need to rethink that system," she said. "I'm seeing kids at 8 or 9 who have figured out the system and don't like school, don't want to be in school, doing things to get expelled."

Delucchi said she'd like to see a way to keep kids in school and get them treatment.

Sharon Paradis, Juvenile Court administrator, said the juvenile-detention center in Tri-Cities effectively functions as the mental-health system for kids. She thinks other options are needed. "You've got to find the treatment," she said.

The group talked about adopting a public-health approach to mental health, which Brenna said means identifying risk factors and ways to intervene. More research is showing that some mental illnesses may be preventable, he said. "It is not necessary for someone with a mental illness to end up in jail, or to end up homeless, or in poverty," Brenna said.