How It Ended

In 1994, Washington State passed a massive bill reforming children’s mental health services. Many of the existing institutions were gutted, programs shut down, and vulnerable children were forced out of places of refuge and safety. The existing statewide system of non-profits, some of which had operated for more than a century, was replaced by for-profit providers working on the free market, bidding to providing the cheapest care for at-risk, often abused, children with severe mental health needs.