Offers children and family counseling, treatment for child victims of sexual abuse, and coordination of family support services, including parent education, parenting classes, and family advocate services to promote the self-sufficiency and well-being of families.

Children's Mental Health Services offered by Akin at Vancouver Family Resource Center

Programs that specialize in the treatment of adolescents, usually age 12 or 13 through 17, who have adjustment problems, behavior problems, emotional disturbance, a personality disorder or incipient mental illness. The programs may help youth troubled by low self-esteem, social isolation, peer pressure, bullying, school performance issues, truancy, anger management issues, family problems, grief and loss, sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted infection, alcohol or drug addiction, eating disorders, oppositional and defiant behaviors, depression and anxiety, suicidal thoughts or other difficult issues.

Adolescent/Youth Counseling

Programs that teach skills that enable parents to deal constructively and consistently with a broad spectrum of child rearing problems which may include sibling rivalry; school behavior and performance; poor self-esteem; shyness; drug use; sexual promiscuity; and the whole range of negative, acting-out behaviors including whining, temper tantrums, disobedience, insolence and destructiveness. Some parenting skills development programs utilize a step-by-step approach for managing specific problems and may incorporate application at home of techniques that were discussed and practiced in the classroom setting. Other programs may offer participatory family workshops which provide opportunities for parents and children to learn and practice methods for dealing with one another under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Most training programs teach the parent a particular way of talking and relating to their children that reinforces positive behaviors and communication and decreases negative behaviors while supporting the development of a relationship that is built on fairness, mutual caring and respect.

Parenting Skills Classes

Mutual support groups for parents who share a common characteristic or circumstance such as being single parents, dual career parents, multiple birth parents, parents with children who are out of control, or parents of children with disabilities, who come together for educational and social purposes as well as for mutual support. Meeting formats may include in-person, telephone or Internet options.

Parent Support Groups

Mutual support groups whose members are individuals who have adopted a child or are considering or in the process of adoption, birth parents who relinquished a child for adoption, people who were, themselves adopted, foster care providers, children in foster care, kinship caregivers (paternal or maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members, members of a child's tribe or clan, godparents, stepparents, neighbors, friends of the family or other adults who can serve as "family"), children cared for by relatives under a formal or informal kinship care arrangement and/or adults who, as children, were raised in foster or kinship care. Groups may also be structured for adoptees, siblings and/or birth parents who have been reunited; older kinship caregivers who have taken on an unexpected parenting role later in life; and people who have other kinship issues, e.g., grandparents and other relatives who have been denied access to a grandchild or other youngster due to a death or divorce in the child's family. Meeting formats may include in-person, telephone or Internet options.

Adoption and Foster/Kinship Care Support Groups

Outpatient facilities that offer a variety of counseling services for individuals, couples, families and extended family groups who may be experiencing difficulty resolving personal or interpersonal conflicts or making personal adjustments to stressful life situations such as separation, divorce, widowhood, loss of a child, poor health, unemployment, family violence, delinquency or substance abuse.

Family Counseling Agencies

Programs that specialize in the treatment of children from infancy to age 12 who have adjustment problems, behavior problems, emotional disturbances, a personality disorder or incipient mental illness.

Child Guidance

Programs that provide a wide variety of social services that are designed to support the healthy development of families, improve family interaction skills and help fragile families to resolve their problems at a pre-crisis stage before they become unmanageable.  Services may be center-based or provided on an outreach basis to families who are initially reluctant to seek support and generally target the specific needs of a particular community.  Included may be self-sufficiency programs which help families break the cycle of poverty by addressing the barriers to self-sufficiency; early child development and school success programs; programs which address the needs of teen parents; programs which target parents at risk for becoming abusive; programs for families with children who have special developmental needs and programs that focus on the maternal and child health care needs of first-time, expectant women whose babies are at high risk for low birth weight and infant mortality.

Family Resource Centers/Outreach

Programs approved by the court that provide classes which utilize a specialized curriculum that assists families with family preservation and unification. The programs target families in which children are deemed at risk for abuse and neglect and enable parents to fulfill the requirements of court-ordered family preservation contracts.

Court Ordered Parenting Programs

Programs that specialize in the treatment of children and youth who are coping with the trauma of child sexual abuse which occurs when an adult, older adolescent or another child threatens, forces or manipulates a child into sexual activity abusing the relationship of power and authority that adults have over children. Sexual abuse includes sexual kissing, touching, fondling a child’s genitals, oral, anal or vaginal intercourse and incest (sexual intercourse between an adult family member and a child or between siblings) as well as behaviors that don’t involve contact such as genital exposure ("flashing"), intentionally engaging in sexual activity in front of a child, verbal pressure for sex, and sexual exploitation for purposes of prostitution or pornography. Child sexual abuse can take place within the family by a parent, step-parent, sibling or other relative; or outside the home by a friend, neighbor, child care provider, teacher or stranger. Separate counseling sessions may be structured for young children who have been victimized and for older children in their teens.

Child Sexual Abuse Counseling

Offers children and family counseling, treatment for child victims of sexual abuse, and coordination of family support services, including parent education, parenting classes, and family advocate services. The site also offers emergency food, Recovery Cafe, and WIC (Women, Infants, & Children) to promote the self-sufficiency and well-being of local families.

Mental Health Assessment and Treatment offered by Akin at East County Family Resource Center

Offers children and family counseling, treatment for child victims of sexual abuse, and coordination of family support services. Also, has a food pantry and clothing closet.

A public health nutrition program administered by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service that provides nutrition education, nutritious foods, breastfeeding support and health care referrals for income-eligible pregnant or postpartum individuals, infants and children up to age five. Foster parents, grandparents, guardians and single fathers who have custody of their children may also be eligible to receive food assistance for children up to age five if they meet income guidelines. WIC provides specific foods to supplement the dietary needs of participants to ensure good health and development. Food packages typically include iron-fortified infant cereal, milk, cheese, eggs, whole grains, peanut butter, beans, fruits, vegetables and juice. Families can shop for WIC foods at most grocery stores using a WIC electronic transfer benefit (EBT) card or vouchers.

Programs that provide clothing for people who need it. Available items depend on what has been donated and is on hand at any given time. The collection may include but does not specialize in children's clothes, work clothes, maternity clothes and shoes.

General Clothing Provision

Programs that acquire food products through donations, canned food drives, food bank programs or direct purchase and distribute the food to people who are in emergency situations. Some pantries deliver food to people whose disabilities or illnesses make it difficult for them to leave home.

Food Pantries

Child and Family Outpatient services provide an array of counseling and support services to families with children and youth who may have emotional and/or behavioral challenges. Compass Health services are designed to promote positive changes in behavior, help the child /youth and family learn appropriate coping skills, improve communication skills including learning to resolve conflict and manage emotions in a healthy manner.

Child and Family Outpatient Services offered at Compass Health - Skagit County

Provides counseling and support services to families with children and youth who may have emotional and/or behavioral challenges.

Programs that offer therapist-facilitated collective treatment sessions in which unrelated groups of individuals, couples or families discuss their attitudes, feelings and problems and, with input from other members of the group, attempt to achieve greater self and interpersonal understanding and adjustment and explore solutions to their problems.

Group Counseling

Programs that are staffed by licensed physicians who specialize in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disorders of thinking, feeling and behavior affecting children, adolescents and their families. Services include an assessment that involves a detailed exploration of current concerns about the child or adolescent's emotional or behavioral problems, physical health and development, history of parental care (including possible abuse), family relationships and any history of parental/familial mental illness; and a variety of treatment options that may include psychotherapy, medication and/or consultation with other physicians or professionals from schools, juvenile courts, social agencies or other community organizations.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Programs that offer therapeutic sessions that focus on the system of relationships and communication patterns among family members and which attempt to modify those relationships and patterns to achieve greater harmony. The therapist focuses on the family as a unit rather than concentrating on one of the members who is singled out as the person in need of treatment.