Mental health maneuvers
Spokane County’s public mental health network could become part of a giant district under a proposal made in hopes of maintaining local control of the system.
County commissioners Tuesday gave Christine Barada, the county community services director, permission to inquire if other mental health districts are interested in making Spokane County part of their service area.
State officials announced last week that they denied a Spokane County protest of a Department of Social and Health Services review that puts county oversight of mental health in jeopardy.
Spokane County, which helps about 5,000 people a month, has a DSHS contract designating it one of 14 regional support networks. The networks manage the mental health system but hire other groups to provide care.
Because the county failed the review and hopes to continue its role in mental health administration, it must compete in a bidding process that starts next month in which companies could vie for the state contract.
Barada said the county prefers not to join another district but believes a consolidated district would have a better chance of winning in the bidding process against managed-care companies.
One of the possible networks that the county could join is Greater Columbia Behavioral Health, which includes Whitman and 10 other counties.
The other district adjacent to Spokane, Northeast Washington, also failed the review.
– Jonathan Brunt
West coverage focus of forum
Local editors, journalism professors and a former mayor will discuss The Spokesman-Review’s investigation of former Mayor Jim West at a forum tonight sponsored by the Washington News Council.
In stories that began May 5, the newspaper reported that West had used his city computer to meet younger men on an Internet site and had engaged in sexually explicit conversations with someone he believed to be a local high school senior.
That person was actually a forensic computer specialist hired by the newspaper to verify reports by other local men that they had contacts with West.
The newspaper’s reporting prompted a successful recall drive.
The panel will include former Mayor Jack Geraghty; Jane Kirtley, professor of media and ethics at the University of Minnesota; Ted McGregor, editor and publisher of The Inlander; Steven A. Smith, Spokesman-Review editor; and Ginny Whitehouse, associate professor at Whitworth College. West has declined to participate.
The forum, featuring questions from a moderator and the audience, will begin at 7 p.m. at Whitworth’s Weyerhaeuser Hall.
It is free and open to the public.
– Jim Camden