Who is contributing to the development of the Strategic Plan?

Washington Thriving is the statewide effort to develop a Prenatal-through-Age-25 Behavioral Health Strategic Plan. This initiative requires dedication and work from many different groups including individuals with lived and living experience, system partners, and legislators. This blog post describes what is being produced and explains how various groups are contributing to the effort. Additional information can be found in the 2024 Progress Report

What is being produced?

On November 1, the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group will submit the Strategic Plan to the Legislature. This will be a long-form document summarizing the current state of the behavioral health system, a vision for the future, and recommendations to make that vision a reality. In addition to the document submitted to the Legislature, Washington Thriving will produce numerous issue briefs and a companion website bringing together the extensive set of information that is informing the Strategic Plan. These various materials, which will include the many existing plans and strategies already underway, will provide a shared base of knowledge to support future collaboration across the system. 

Who is contributing?

The two formal bodies guiding Washington Thriving are the Advisory Group and the Children & Youth Behavioral Health Work Group (CYBHWG). In addition to guidance from these two bodies, Washington Thriving is benefitting from insights and experience provided by numerous individuals and organizations. More detailed descriptions are provided below.  

As outlined in the legislation, Washington Thriving has coordinated with the Joint Legislative Executive Committee on Behavioral Health (JLECBH) and the Crisis Response Improvement Strategy (CRIS) Committee

A project team staffed by HCA, with philanthropically-funded support from Behavioral Health Catalyst, coordinates activities and, with guidance from the Washington Thriving co-chairs, is synthesizing inputs from the many contributors described below to produce iterative drafts of the Strategic Plan. 

Washington Thriving Advisory Group 

The Washington Thriving Advisory Group is the primary body informing the development of the Strategic Plan. The Advisory Group is made up of individuals with lived or living experience as well as professionals from various state agencies and other organizations involved in behavioral health. 

The Advisory Group meets six times per year to provide input and feedback on emerging pieces of the Strategic Plan. This group developed Washington Thriving’s vision and definition of behavioral health

Discussion Groups: To create space for specific perspectives, three “Discussion Groups” have convened as ad hoc subcommittees of the Advisory Group: one for parents and caregivers, one for youth and young adults, and one for system partners and providers. These one-to-two-hour meetings are open to the public. Participants give feedback and suggestions on emerging pieces of the Strategic Plan.  

The Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group  

The Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group (CYBHWG) provides recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature to improve behavioral health services and strategies for children, youth, young adults, and their families. The development of a P-25 Strategic Plan was a recommendation of the CYBHWG in 2022. The CYBHWG is the body that will submit the Strategic Plan to the Legislature in November 2025.  

CYBHWG Subgroups: The CYBHWG has five established subgroups working in specific areas to focus on unique aspects or populations within the behavioral health system. These include:  

  • Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) 

  • Prenatal-to-Age-5 Relational Health (P5RH) 

  • School-Based Behavioral Health and Suicide Prevention (SBBHSP) 

  • Youth and Young Adult Continuum of Care (YYACC) 

  • Workforce and Rates (W&R)

Each of the CYBHWG subgroups are providing inputs to the Strategic Plan on their particular focus areas. 

Subgroups will have an opportunity to seek feedback from the Washington Thriving Advisory Group as their specific inputs are developed. Taking into account the Advisory Group’s feedback, the Washington Thriving project team will incorporate subgroups’ inputs into the Strategic Plan. 

Ad Hoc Groups 

Throughout the Washington Thriving project, ad hoc groups have been convened for specific workstreams. This has included groups focused on discovery sprints, system modeling, and more. The findings from these workstreams, and from the work done by contractors (reports can be found here), serve as inputs to the Strategic Plan. They are consumed by the Advisory Group and shared widely through various channels. 

Other Contributors 

In addition to the specific groups outlined above, Washington Thriving has engaged a broad range of individuals and organizations from across the system, including:  

  • Lived and living experience subject matter experts - youth, young adults, caregivers, parents, and individual frontline system partners (people from community-based organizations, providers, peer supports, advocates, etc.) 

  • Community systems, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, community advocates, employers, local associations & cultural navigators, accountable communities of health (ACHs), other trusted messengers 

  • Clinical/health systems (pediatrics, general practitioners, family medicine, behavioral health/substance use disorder and other specialists, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, administrators, clinics, hospitals, facilities, other) 

  • Public health 

  • Juvenile justice, carceral systems, public safety, law enforcement, juvenile rehabilitation 

  • Housing systems 

  • Child welfare, foster care 

  • Family, social, and human services systems 

  • Disability systems  

  • School systems (educators, school and district admin, educational school districts, The office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, other) 

  • Health insurance coverage system (Medicaid, private insurers, Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), Behavioral Health – Administrative Services Organizations (BH-ASOs)) 

  • Associations, alliances, federations, coalitions, networks, workgroups, advisory groups, boards, and other cohorts 

  • Workforce development systems, higher education, community & technical colleges 

  • Individual Subject Matter Experts and academics  

  • Tribal organizations and governments 

  • Advocacy organizations, nonprofit organizations 

  • Data partners & evaluators 

  • Interested philanthropy 

  • State agencies & commissions 

  • Legislators 

  • Executive branch government 

  • County & city agencies & government 

  • National partners & federal government agencies 

How the inputs across groups contribute to the Strategic Plan

The result of these collaboration is the culmination of various inputs that will feed into either the final Strategic Plan or supporting issue briefs used to allow for people to dig deeper into specific areas of interest. The below flow chart demonstrates how inputs from different parties will feed into the Washington Thriving Strategic Plan and supporting documents. 

Questions? Contact Washington Thriving at info@washingtonthriving.org. 

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