Wash. Rev. Code § 71.05.390

Confidential information and records — Disclosure

The fact that an individual received voluntary or involuntary mental health services as well as all information and records relating to such services is confidential. Such information may only be disclosed in the following circumstances and as provided elsewhere by law:

•         “Qualified professional persons” may discuss information while providing mental health services or during a guardianship proceeding. The individual that is the subject matter of the information must consent to the disclosure of information unless disclosure is made to a professional person that provides care to the individual or is employed by a facility that cares for or supervises the person.
•         A facility providing services to a patient may disclose information related to that patient’s special needs “to the operator of a facility in which the patient resides or will reside.”
•         A patient, their guardian, or, if the patient is a minor, their parent, may designate a person “to whom information or records may be released.”
•         Public and private agencies must release information regarding a person’s presence in a mental health facility or the fact that they are “seriously physically ill” to the person’s family, attorney, representative, guardian or conservator.  These individuals must receive, upon request, an evaluation of the person’s condition and the probably length of their confinement. Agencies must also provide the family and attorney with any other information they need to determine whether to seek a guardian or conservator for the confined person.
•         Recipients may obtain any information they need to apply for or obtain “aid, insurance, or medical assistance.”
•         Researchers and evaluators may obtain information so long as they take an oath of confidentiality.
•         Courts may obtain information regarding court ordered evaluations and treatments.
•         Prosecutors may obtain information in order to perform their duties during a proceeding for the early release of a patient, modification of an inpatient treatment order, or conditional release from outpatient care. The committed person and their lawyer must receive notice of disclosure before the prosecutor may access the information.
•         Mental health professionals must, upon request, disclose the results of an investigation to the law enforcement officials that requested the investigation.
•         A detained person’s attorney may obtain information.
•         A public or private agency must disclose information regarding a patient to law enforcement and a person if the patient has threatened the health and safety of the person.
•         Mental health service providers must release information to law enforcement agencies in an emergency. Such providers are immune from liability so long as they disclosed the information in good faith. 
•         A patient’s family, representatives, guardian or conservator must be notified of the patient’s death.
•         The department of health must have access to information in order to assess facility and provider compliance with applicable licensure, certification, and registration laws.
•         Information may be released in order to “mark headstones or otherwise memorialize patients interred at state hospital cemeteries.”
•         Law enforcement officers and prosecutors must have access to information regarding in order to investigate and prosecute individuals accused of violating Washington’s prohibition on handgun possession by persons that were found not guilty of a felony by reason of insanity.
•         Relatives, the department of corrections, and law enforcement officers may obtain information regarding a patient that has disappeared.
•         Information collected and obtained pursuant to this chapter is inadmissible in any legal proceeding unless the subject matter of the information consents. Court records created during mental health proceedings are confidential and may only be disclosed to the subject matter of the record, their attorney, or upon a showing of “good cause.”