Equity and Collaborative Impact

At Southwest Washington Accountable Community of Health (SWACH), we believe that collaboration is essential in creating meaningful change in our region. We work to bring community partners and organizations together to address the challenges people in Southwest Washington face in achieving whole-person wellness.

The Equity and Collaborative Impact team leads efforts to build and sustain collaborative partnerships to promote health equity and whole-person wellness in Southwest Washington through regional community engagement, coalition building, and strategic technical assistance. Current focus areas for this team include innovative substance abuse prevention and harm-reduction initiatives, COVID-19 prevention and education, and behavioral health transformation.

Our Equity and Collaborative Impact team works on multiple projects that span different industries and partnerships. Learn more about project specifics below.

Trueblood Case

SWACH’s work with the Trueblood case stems from Trueblood et al. v. Washington State Department of Social Health Services. The case challenged unconstitutional delays in competency evaluation and restoration for individuals detained in city and county jails awaiting competency services. As a result, the state agreed to provide services to aid current class members and reduce the number of people who become class members.

What Does Implementation Include?

  • Competency evaluation

  • Competency restoration

  • Crisis triage and diversion supports (upstream support)

  • Education and training

  • Workforce development

Trueblood and SWACH

  • Monthly Trueblood Collaboration Taskforce of Southwest Washington meeting

  • Monthly Trueblood Forensic Service Providers meeting

  • Quarterly training for participants

  • Quarterly reporting to the Health Care Authority

The current Trueblood work includes three primary areas: Engaging new participants (including judges, attorneys, and medical providers) and providing them with training, knowledge and resource sharing, and stakeholder communication (which includes regional crisis collaboratives, opioid taskforces, etc.).

To learn more about our Equity and Collaborative Impact team and the work they do, contact us at info@southwestach.org.