Committee hears wide-ranging testimony on competency restoration bill after Trueblood backlog work

Representative Daria Farvar, prime sponsor of House Bill 1218, told the committee the bill responds to long-standing problems in Washington’s competency-evaluation and restoration system tied to the Trueblood litigation and statewide increases in referrals for competency evaluation and restoration.

The proposal would: require improvements in outpatient competency restoration and allow transfer from inpatient to outpatient when appropriate; require courts to consider involuntary medication orders when sufficient evidence exists; create a DSHS-managed growth-cap program that sets a baseline and an incentive cap for inpatient referrals by county and imposes graduated penalties for referrals above the baseline; deposit penalty revenue into a Behavioral Health Diversion Fund that counties can draw from if they reduce inpatient referrals; and direct DSHS and the Health Care Authority to convene a task force to develop protocols and report back by June 1, 2026.

Representative Farvar said Washington is in compliance with court-ordered timelines for Trueblood for the first time but warned that bed projections — including a new forensic hospital opening in 2028 — show capacity will again tighten unless referral trends change. “If it all goes as planned, we are going to have hundreds of beds coming online by 2028,” she said, and added that the state must avoid relying…