Friends and neighbors,
This will be the last email update you will get from me until this fall. During an election year, state ethics law requires certain restrictions on a legislator’s communications to prevent the use of state resources for campaign purposes. These restrictions include freezes on email updates and websites. That is why you won’t be getting updates from me beginning May 6, 2024, until December.
That doesn’t keep you from reaching out to my office, I look forward to hearing from you and will respond. You can contact me my calling my legislative phone number at (360) 786-7958 or by emailing me, or my Legislative Assistant, Tamlyn Crain. I look forward to hearing from you and wish you a pleasant summer and fall.
Crisis Co-Responders
This session I sponsored an important piece of legislation that unfortunately didn’t make it to the Governor’s desk. House Bill 2245 would have established a training program for co-responders at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Fortunately, much of this bill turned into a budget item in this year’s Supplemental Operating Budget.
Co-responders are the behavioral health professionals who join first responders in responding to crises. They can assist in response to suicide, substance use, or other behavioral health-related crises. They assist in de-escalating situations and can reduce injury and officer use of force.
In Washington, there isn’t a standardized credential or training program for these professionals. They have training in behavioral and mental health generally but learn much about crisis response on the job. Though we can’t replace real-world experience, our state should better prepare these professionals.
I was recently able to speak to the Co-Responder Outreach Alliance about our efforts to better support co-responders. Co-Responder Outreach Alliance is an organization dedicated to helping our communities respond to mental and behavioral health crises and save lives.
We need to make sure co-responders are receiving effective, best-practices training so they can do their jobs as effectively as possible.
Our Latest District Newsletter
You may have received a newsletter in the mail sent to you by my seatmate, Rep. Mari Leavitt, and me. You can find an online version of that here (or linked in the image below).
Even though I won’t be sending you updates until December, I hope you still reach out to my office with your thoughts and concerns. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
Rep. Dan Bronoske