LAKEWOOD, Wash. – The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has proposed an amendment to the Master Facilities Plan for the Western State Hospital campus to include the construction of a proposed 350-bed forensic hospital. Public comments on the proposal will be accepted through July 7 at 5:00 p.m.
The proposed updated WSH Master Plan reflects the changes at the hospital directed by the Governor and Legislature, and other development plans that would update buildings, parking and open space at the WSH campus.
DSHS’ amended Master Facilities Plan describes expected changes to the state’s behavioral health model and to the campus of Western State Hospital.
DSHS’ Appendices document further describes the state’s model for behavioral health, and addresses the community impact of the amended master plan regarding economic, traffic, and environmental effects.
Public comments already submitted by the community are open for review. Community members that wish to comment may comment online.
Being a close neighbor, my concerns are the forensic patients will be released into
our community not dispersed throughout the state or returned to the area where their
sojourn to the hospital began. I am also concerned with security of those often dangerous patients. The last two escapees road the bus in front of my house during their escape, a little too close for comfort. Another concern I have is the history of DSHS moving patients into neighboring Family Homes without identifying the level of seriousness of crimes committed against others and continuously using only our community for their release instead of, again, returning them to the communities they lived in before their mental health incarceration.
Linda, Jim here from the City of Lakewood. I recommend that you submit your comment for the record at wshmasterplan.org.
The comment period was extended through Friday due to a network outage we suffered yesterday.
Where is Lakewood going to come up with 1.7 BILLION for this?
For that matter, where is the STATE going to come up with this, in light of how many businesses went under during the Covid-19 restrictions, and how many lost their jobs?
Hello Linda, Jim from the City of Lakewood here. I recommend submitting your comment for the record. It’s not too late; we extended the comment period through Friday due to some network issues we are experiencing.
https://wshmasterplan.org/submit-your-comments