Mental Illness

Prosecutors won’t charge woman who says she abandoned newborn in Ballard

Prosecutors have declined to file charges against a woman who admitted abandoning the body of her newborn along a Seattle roadway. They said they lack independent evidence to prove that a crime was committed and that the baby, who had a gestational age of just 32-36 weeks, was in fact born alive.

King County is getting its first walk-in mental health crisis center

A new walk-in crisis care center in Kirkland for people experiencing mental health emergencies will start accepting patients in early August.

Seattle’s troubled past and present suggest a new approach to mental health

The story of Seattle’s first known homeless man and how he was treated speaks to the continuing problems with mental health care 170 years later.

Vulnerable patients caught in ‘churn’ between Washington mental health care systems face life and death circumstances

Lost Patients is a deeply-reported, six-part docuseries examining the difficulties of treating serious mental illness through the lens of one city's past, present and future. With real-life testimonials from patients, families, and professionals on the front lines, Lost Patients provides a real, solutions-oriented look at how we got stuck here...and what we might do to break free.

50 years ago, many psychiatric hospitals closed. Did that cause today's mental health crisis?