Linnea Peover Seattle Children's Home Phone: 206.298.9650
SEATTLE -- Seattle Children's Home has been awarded $200,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to establish an integrated assessment of physical and behavioral health needs of emotionally disturbed children. With this award, Seattle Children's Home will expand services through their Continuum of Care, including hiring a developmental pediatrician, who will assess both physical and behavioral health issues experienced by many emotionally disturbed children. The addition of the pediatrician is very important because without accurate and comprehensive diagnosis, children cannot receive the type and mix of services they need to improve their conditions.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the United States Public Health Service now identifies the lack of integrated physical and behavioral health services for children as a national priority, and one that requires an innovative response. Therefore, this project not only establishes a vital new service for the emotionally disturbed children in Seattle, but also develops and evaluates a model for service that can be replicated to improve the well being of children throughout the country.
"This is a powerful and generous gift," said David Cousineau, president of Seattle Children's Home. "It is a significant investment in our Continuum of Care — the Home's new commitment to the state's most severely disturbed children.
"We thank the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation for their belief in our new approach in caring for children," Cousineau continued. "Because of this investment, and the other gifts from our Board and community, the children in the Continuum will get well, stay well and enter adulthood successfully."
Seattle Children's Home will partner with the University of Washington's Center on Human Development and Disability to establish the Assessment Center of the Continuum of Care as a model center for the integrated assessment of physical and behavioral health needs. The UW School of Public Health will evaluate the project and document systems for replication. The National Association of Psychiatric Treatment Centers for Children, of which Seattle Children's Home is a member, will provide a strategic vehicle for disseminating project information and fostering project replication.
Seattle Children's Home was founded in 1884 as Washington State's first children's charity. It has evolved from an orphanage to a comprehensive mental health facility, serving 1,700 children and young adults each year in 12 different programs. These programs are located on the main campus on Queen Anne, as well as two community based transitional living programs, a residential program in Mountlake Terrace for developmentally delayed, outpatient services, and mobile outreach to homeless youth.