Seattle Children's Home

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The experiences of childhood influence each life in profound ways. At Seattle Children’s Home we help children and their families face situational, emotional and developmental challenges through a broad range of counseling, therapeutic and psychiatric services aimed at helping our children create solid emotional foundations for successful futures.

Seattle Children’s Home is staffed with experienced and caring professionals who have dedicated their careers to helping children navigate the often troubled waters of childhood and adolescence. At Seattle Children’s Home we listen to and work with children, parents and the community. Our programs address a full range of challenges that children face.

Outpatient Services

The Outpatient Treatment Services program advances the mission of Seattle Children's Home by building partnerships to improve futures. Through collaborations with families and support communities, we strive to enhance the functioning of children and their families as it relates to emotional and behavioral problems. It is based on the premise that successful outcomes for our clients are achieved when they reflect a positive change for the child, as defined by the client and or their community. Interventions are built on a foundation of strength and knowledge based competencies honoring diversity and culture.

Seattle Children's Home Outpatient Treatment Services works to provide services as required by the community. Outpatient Treatment Services provides culturally sensitive care based on the client need in their home, at schools, shelters and partnering agencies throughout King County. In a family-centered approach, families are assisted to identify a range of resources including formal services and informal supports to meet their needs. Primary attention is given to the family's skill development in building and accessing resources required to meet the family needs.

Services provided include:

special population evaluations and consultations
individual medication case management
individual treatment services in individualized treatment modalities tailored to the client and family
family therapy
psychiatric consultations
interdisciplinary staffing
comprehensive assessments and evaluation

The goal of the program is to assist children in the successful transition to adulthood by providing the child and his or her family the necessary tools and skills to do so, building on the systems strengths and goals.

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Behavioral Support Team

The Behavior Support Team (BeST) provides a timely and supportive response to families caring for children with developmental disabilities and behavioral challenges. BeST provides weekday telephone and outreach intervention, between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm, to King County children and youth ages 3-17 who are currently enrolled clients of Washington's Region 4 Division of Developmental Disabilities.

The services are provided by Masters level family therapists and range from phone consultation to Intensive Family Preservation Services. The length of the intervention ranges from a 15-minute telephone call to 8-12 weeks of intensive in-home services, which include behavior assessment, family counseling and linkages to other service providers. In most cases the team does not provide primary crisis intervention but is the second line of crisis response.

The goal of all interventions is to alleviate the current crisis, reduce frequency and severity of future crises, and build skills in the child/youth and family to assist them in managing problematic behaviors effectively by utilizing the strengths, resources and existing networks of support in the community of the child/youth and family.

To reach the Behavioral Support Team, call
1-800-318-KIDS (1-800-318-5437)
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Multisystemic Therapy

Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) is a family-centered and community-based treatment system designed to significantly reduce rates of re-arrests and incarceration among youth involved in the Juvenile Justice system. A central commitment of MST is that it works for change within the youth's natural community. MST is a proven strategy that has been helping youth and families for decades.

MST's treatment strategy is based on the fact that behavior, including criminal behavior, takes place in the context of multiple, interconnected systems including the individual, the family, peers, school, and community. In order to bring about change, intervention in one or more of these areas may be necessary.

The overriding goal of MST is to empower parents (or other adults serving in a responsible role) with the skills and resources needed to independently address the inevitable difficulties that arise in raising teenagers, and to empower youth to cope with family, peer, school and neighborhood problems. MST stresses the importance of "real life" and long-term change.

Important characteristics of the MST approach include:

Active parent/caregiver participation and collaboration
Working with youth and families in the home, school and other community locations
Brief (4-5 months) duration of treatment
Intensity of treatment - early in treatment, sessions may occur every day; as treatment progresses, sessions may occur as infrequently as once a week
Flexible scheduling to meet the needs of the family
24 hour, 7 day availability of therapists

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Pediatric Assessment Center

In 2001, Seattle Children's Home staff's analysis of the children they served found that children, with mental illnesses, were not receiving the care they needed; and with the agency's goal that no child should be lost within the mental health system, the idea for the Pediatric Assessment Center was created. PAC began as a pilot project and grew into a full-fledged program in partnership with the University of Washington's Center on Human Development and Disability Clinical Training Unit. In 2003, the PAC served 76 children with mental illness (and often other disabilities).

This project has two goals: 1) Promote greater understanding by parents and mental health providers of children's strengths and challenges. As a result of an accurate and integrated mental health/medical diagnosis and plan, this goal will be achieved through: a) changes in treatments and placements, and b) access to appropriate specialized service and community resources. Ultimately, this will lead to better outcomes for children and help eliminate ineffective and expensive treatment options. 2) Ensure the continuation of the Pediatric Assessment Center that is interdisciplinary, a national model, a regional resource for the five Pacific Northwest states, and a training ground for University of Washington students who often return to their own community to work.

The PAC assessment leads to changes in both diagnosis and treatment recommendations for each child served. The success of the PAC is its ability to identify accurate diagnosis, clarify treatment needs and make recommendations to the caregivers of the children served.

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McGraw Residential

McGraw Center provides intensive 24-hour residential and psychiatric care for children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 17. During this reporting period, the program was licensed for 21 beds, but was only able to house 19 beds in the existing three double bedrooms and thirteen single bedrooms. Of the 19 beds available, 15 were designated for youth referred by the Children's Long-term Inpatient Program (CLIP), and four beds were designated for youth referred by parents, DCFS, and other treatment programs.

The youth and families who come to McGraw Center for mental health services have often exhausted other options for addressing their special needs. McGraw provides progressive, effective and individualized treatment to children as an integrated, supportive partner in the community. The youth served frequently have a number of psychiatric, psychological, and behavioral disorders, including suicide attempts, mood disorders, thought disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities, PTSD, as well as Conduct and Oppositional Defiant Disorders. Most of the youth served have experienced difficulties in multiple settings that may include home, school, other treatment facilities, group homes, foster placements, and/or the community.

Once a child is admitted to McGraw, target behaviors and issues are identified for each resident in the treatment plan in order to facilitate interventions in the milieu and with the various modalities of care. The treatment objectives are achievable, time limited, and based on input from the treatment team, the resident, his/her family, and their community team. All treatment plans are individualized, with criteria for continued stay and discharge being addressed on a regular basis and discussed during monthly Community Team Planning Meetings.

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125th Anniversary Gala
May 16, 2009

2142 10th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119
Phone 206 283-3300
FAX 206 284-7843
Email Us

Outpatient Services
Behavioral Support Team
Multisystemic Therapy
Pediatric Assessment Center
McGraw Residential