Gov. Jay Inslee visited the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle Monday to discuss how new state funding will be used to train additional psychiatric and behavioral health providers and build the nation’s first ever behavioral health teaching hospital.
The innovative hospital will not only help build the pipeline of much-needed psychiatry providers, it will also provide additional treatment capacity for patients who need psychiatric services.
Inslee toured one of the voluntary psychiatry units at UWMC and then joined psychiatry residents and UW Medicine leaders for a discussion and tele-psychiatry demonstration. The students and leaders talked about the importance of funding additional residencies and expanding the availability of psychiatric and behavioral health services to rural areas.
Dr. Jurgen Unutzer and Dr. Anna Ratzliff, both considered national experts in integrating psychiatry and behavioral health care, led the discussion.
Darrell Wilson said he took an unorthodox approach to getting his education.
After earning his associate degree from Pierce College, he spent the next three-plus years earning his own tuition money so that he wouldn’t have to take out student loans. Then, he earned a certificate and took two internships (one with the Pierce County Health Department, the other with the City of Puyallup) around his career choice: Geographic Information System Mapping Technology. He did all of this before even starting his undergraduate program at the University of Washington.
“I wanted to build my resume from the ground up because some people struggle to get a job in their field after they graduate because they don’t have real-world experience,” Wilson said. “Doing those internships beforehand helped me keep ahead of the competition. It’s a competitive world and I wanted to be ahead of everything.”
Soon, he’ll graduate from the University of Washington with a GIS degree. And he’ll enter the professional workforce already having a strong network in his field because of his hands-on internship and certificate work.
Wilson shared his story with with Gov. Jay Inslee, state leaders and Washingtonians on Tuesday as they discussed how the state is helping more students find a pathway to a good-paying job or career. The meeting focused on college, STEM programs and degrees, and career-connected learning programs such as apprenticeships.
Read the rest of the story on the governor's Medium page.
Follow the red brick road — into Canada.
A new brick sidewalk safely guides pedestrians from the United States and into Canada at the one of the northern-most border crossings in the nation. But it’s not just a sidewalk — it serves as tangible evidence of how a small group of public servants used innovation and collaboration to finish a job.
Ranger Jason Snow is the man to thank for seeing it through.
“Thousands of people cross that area every day,” said Snow, who works at the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. “That’s what sparked me to say, ‘We’ve got to do something.’”
It’s a project that makes Snow proud. It removed a significant safety hazard because people no longer have to walk on the I-5 shoulder to reach the park on either side.
“The sidewalk makes it so darn unique,” Snow said. “Connecting up to that is huge for the U.S. and Canada. There’s no other border crossing like this.”
Read the rest of the story on the governor's Medium page.
- Gov. Jay Inslee issued a statement on July 2 about the Trump administration’s decision to drop efforts to include a new citizenship question on the 2020 census. Inslee said it was the right decision.
- State leaders announced $126 million in grants to fund 333 outdoor projects across the state. The projects will improve access to outdoor recreation, conserve habitats and support working farms and forests. These grants help fuel our state’s powerful outdoor recreation economy that puts about 200,000 Washingtonians to work every year.
- Inslee sent a letter on June 21 that details concerns about potential changes to how the federal government measures poverty. The Trump administration recently put out a notice that asked for comment on a proposal that would lower the poverty threshold. The proposal could also leave tens of thousands of Washingtonians and millions of Americans without assistance for health care, food, housing and child care needs. Attorney General Bob Ferguson, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler and Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal also signed the letter.
- Following the June 20 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that allows President Trump’s Title X gag rule to go into effect while undergoing a legal challenge, Inslee and state Department of Health Secretary John Wiesman are reviewing the impacts to the state’s family planning program and taking steps to ensure women’s continued access to care.
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