Take Survey 4 (July 9-17) embedding core WA Thriving values into the P-25 Behavioral Health Strategic Plan
Survey Details:
Time to complete: 20-25 minutes
Survey link follows below
Before You Start
Before you answer the questions, please read the information below. This explains what Washington Thriving is thinking about doing and why. You can look back at this information while answering the survey questions.
What Is Washington Thriving Working On?
Washington Thriving is working on a plan to make Washington State's behavioral health system work better for pregnant people, babies, kids, teens, and young adults (ages 0-25) and their caregivers and families – so they can get what they need when they need it and thrive.
This includes making sure the system:
Is truly guided by the people it serves
Makes getting help straightforward and respectful
Adapts to each person's unique situation
Ensures fairness and cultural safety for all
Uses information to get smarter over time
Builds well-being before problems develop
Strengthens natural support networks
Builds widespread awareness and understanding
Has all parts work together smoothly
Ensures the right help is available to everyone
The Strategic Plan: Three Connected Goals
The Strategic Plan – currently being developed – focuses on three important and connected goals to shift from how things work today to achieving the lasting change Washingtonians want to see:
Goal 1: Build Stronger System Infrastructure
Build a stronger system foundation that will deliver what young Washingtonians and their families need
Goal 2: Create Better Services and Programs
Create more and better services and programs for young people and their families to meet their needs
Goal 3: Embed Important Values
Make sure values and principles important to Washingtonians are built into how care is provided and how the system operates
All three parts work together to create real change across the whole system. The Strategic Plan delivered by November 2025 will include specific recommendations within each of these 3 areas. If the plan succeeds in these key areas, it will create lasting positive change for young people and their families across the state.
Why This Survey Focuses on Embedding Important Values (Goal 3)
(Previous surveys covered Goal 1 and Goal 2)
This survey focuses on Goal 3: Embedding core values that guide how the system is structured, how services are delivered, and how young people, caregivers, and families experience care.
The Washington Thriving Advisory Group developed a vision and guiding principles for the behavioral health system the Strategic Plan will work toward.
This goal matters because principles are meaningless if they aren’t put into practice. The recommendations incorporate the principles into core functions of decision-making, service delivery, and continuous improvement across all levels of the system.
What Success Looks Like
Achieving this goal would lead to a functioning System of Care that all young people and families, regardless of their unique circumstances, experience as genuinely supportive, culturally responsive, and continuously improving based on their feedback and guidance.
Emerging Recommendations for Embedding Principles into the Behavioral Health System
Recommendation A: Leverage Innovation to Better Address Equitable Access
Why this matters: Typical service delivery models reinforce of barriers for those with geographic, cultural, linguistic, and economic hurdles to accessing behavioral health services. Rural, BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, and low-income communities experience these barriers, which results in inequitable behavioral health outcomes among these groups. When the state invests in community-driven innovation, it establishes solutions that are effective in addressing these communities’ unique barriers and needs while building upon existing strengths and cultural resources.
Recommendation B: Promote Positive First Encounters by Operationalizing Strengths-Based, Healing-Centered, Culturally-Responsive Intake and Assessment Practices
Why this matters: Intake and assessment practices offer a concrete opportunity to operationalize Washington Thriving's values and guiding principles in daily practice, in a way that will impact entire behavioral health journeys. Transforming first encounters and assessment practices that recognize resilience, center individual choice, and honor complex personal experiences reframe the relationship between individuals and the system from dependency to partnership – a transformation essential for achieving equity in behavioral health care.
Recommendation C: Invest Meaningfully in Sustainable Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships
Why this matters: Washington's behavioral health infrastructure frequently positions youth, families, and community members as recipients of services rather than essential partners and collaborators with unique expertise. For youth and families, especially those who are a part of communities historically excluded from power—BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, and disability communities—these dynamics perpetuate systemic inequities and undermine trust. Authentic partnership with youth, families, and communities is not merely a best practice—it is essential for creating a P-25 behavioral health system that is both effective and equitable. Research consistently demonstrates that services designed with meaningful input from those with lived experience achieve better outcomes, higher engagement rates, and greater sustainability than top-down approaches.
Recommendation D: Ensure Adaptive, Collective Learning Processes that Power Progress
Why this matters: Washington State’s P-25 behavioral health system lacks robust learning mechanisms to understand its impact and adapt effectively. Establishing an active and dynamic cross-system ecosystem of knowledge and data generation focused on understanding and enhancing services will enable the system to respond more rapidly to emerging insights and needs.
What Happens Next
This is the third of three surveys sharing the draft emerging recommendations for feedback.
Each recommendation in the final Strategic Plan will also include options for how to actually make it happen. This will cover next steps to put the recommendation into action, what might help it succeed or cause it to fail, and real examples from Washington, other states, and across the country that we can learn from.
At this important point in developing the recommendations, Washington Thriving wants to hear your thoughts on what the recommendations within this goal should include.