Lynnwood partners select Sea Mar to run crisis care center; state funding and timeline remain in flux

Lynnwood and regional partners on Wednesday introduced Sea Mar Community Health Centers as the organization selected to run the city’s planned crisis care center and said they expect the first phase to open in 2026 if licensing, staffing and state funding are secured.

The center, funded through a mix of Medicaid managed‑care reimbursements and state non‑Medicaid dollars, will offer a 23‑hour stabilization model with 16 recliner spaces and an adjacent 16‑bed crisis‑stabilization unit planned to open later, speakers said. Jan Rose Ottaway Martin, executive director of North Sound BHSO, said the facility is intended to remove pressure on hospital emergency departments and give law enforcement an alternative to take people in crisis.

"We jointly released the RFP to seek a new provider for that facility," Ottaway Martin said. "Sea Mar was selected as the provider for this facility." Claudia De Allegri, Sea Mar’s chief of behavioral health, said Sea Mar brings regional capacity — behavioral health clinics, residential programs and an inpatient facility on the I‑5 corridor — and that the organization is negotiating labor agreements and hiring clinicians now.

Sea Mar and other partners described the 23‑hour model (often described in federal guidance as a short‑term…