Friend of Systems of Care comment, "...Not a great Day for Kids"

This was originally published December 26, 2010  

Update: As of the 28th the following comment was removed from the Facebook page for Yakima Valley Systems of Care either by the page administrator or the person who left the comment.   

"Whatever happened with the involvement with the Tribe anyway? My bud at the Agency tells me that you guys dropped a gigantic steaming pile of poo on them and expected the tribe to be happy about it. What's up with that? Don't you guys have anyone on board who knows how to honor/deal with/support/encourage Natives?? Or is this, like, not a priority?? Shhesh!! Keep this up and I might have to unfriendly you guys. Not a great day for Yakima County - not a great day for kids. :( Boo!! Hiss!!!"

This blogger will be finding out why Yakima County is not making a concerted effort to involve the Tribe.  The barriers need to be removed and Yakama Nation needs to be treated as a partner; to be encouraged; respected for their potential; and  participating in all aspects of  Systems of Care.  Native American youth are one of the target populations that this grant was obtained to serve and to do less than effectively collaborate with Yakama Nation would be wrong.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Yakima County's Director of Human Resources, Steve Hill, and and Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health's CEO, Rick Weaver, exhibiting collusion in covering up a glaring lack of professional ethics, over a period of several years?  Steve Hill has consistently failed to hold CWCMH accountable for failing to serve so many children in this community. CWCMH failed to provide any of the recommended treatment for my son--except medication management.  

I have raised a child in this community with a high level of need, and in my opinion, this agency is not the one that should have been the one chosen to be the "lead" agency to provide Wraparound.  Of the three providers, it is the only one WITHOUT any experience with providing services to children with a high level of need in their own family home.  They only have provided therapeutic foster care, and refused to serve a child with a high level of need in their own home.  


These two men have so ineffectively served this community, that at one time there were three kids from the City of Yakima in one of three buildings on the Campus of Child Study  and Treatment Center.  At the time, it cost $500. a day per child.  The facility serves 47 children and provides long term inpatient psychiatric care for the entire State, so 3 from the City of Yakima, is an extremely high percentage.  In addition there is a class action lawsuit in which Yakima County it is being alleged to fail to provide intensive mental health services to children in their family homes in the community, as a result children got worse and needed higher cost inpatient care.  Then would not be released because there was no effort to correct this lack of care.  This failure also means that these children remain in long term care facilities at a much higher cost and separated from their families.  In my son's case, it took me almost two years to get him home.  Two years from the time Child Study and Treatment Center said he no longer needed to be there.  CWCMH refused to provide the services he needed.  Catholic Community Services from Pierce County did; right here in Yakima, in my home.


Federally funded human service programs have been mandated to streamlined and to work collaboratively for decades.  The Children's Mental Health Initiative is basically the feds paying Washington State and Yakima County to do the right thing, and to stop committing Medicaid fraud; to work collaboratively and better serve children and their families.  

It's like Yakima County Department of Human Services employees are the rebellious teenagers who don't like the fact that they, and CWCMH as contracted service provider, work for the community and NOT the other way around.  The children with high levels of need, and their families, and veteran parents, are supposed to be the ones guiding this effort.  Thus far, it is Yakima County and CWCMH directing, or more accurately, stifling this effort.  It is time for County employees to tell the community about this project, to effectively reach out to the families who are struggling more than they should be because of a failure to serve their interests.  It is time for these agencies to stop trying to pull a fast one on the Yakama Nation and Yakima County citizens.  It is time for this opportunity be treated for what it is, an opportunity for this Yakima County and Yakama Nation and Confederated Tribes and Bands to help our children who have severe emotional and behavioral difficulties and their families.  


Yakima County and CWCMH are working diligently to exclude the people who are actually supposed to be directing this project.  It is time for these families and their children, citizens of Yakama Nation and Confederated Tribes and Bands and of Yakima County, to tell Steve Hill, Director of Human Services, to quote Yakima County's "Parent Coordinator," "This is what we want, and this is how we want it," Vicky Rich, Yakima Valley Systems of Care Parent Coordinator in The Yakima Herald, instead of being told, "that's not what this is about."