Ruth Dykeman Children's Center

Since 1921, Ruth Dykeman Children’s Center (RDCC) has 
been providing 
residential treatment 
and outpatient services 
to vulnerable youth.

As a founding member of 
the Navos Consortium, RDCC worked closely with Navos for 
16 years. In November 2010, RDCC merged with Navos. Pooling their resources together enabled both RDCC and Navos to become stronger and more effective in extending their services to children and 
families in King County.

RDCC Mission: The goal of Ruth Dykeman Children's Center is to continue to make a difference in the lives of children, youth and their families. Children and youth who have experienced rejection, trauma, abuse, and severe poverty are more likely to suffer from poor physical and mental health as adults, and the risks of substance abuse and intimate partner violence. At RDCC children and youth learn to heal from their painful experiences, regulate their own emotions and behavior and create a better future for themselves.

Programs at the RDCC Campus

Residential Behavioral Rehabilitation Services: Children from age 5 to 13 years who have been removed from their family or foster home because of abuse, neglect or unsafe or violent behavior receive intensive residential treatment at the RDCC campus in Burien. A child average treatment in residential care ranges from several weeks to several months.

Community Based Counseling: Targeting at-risk youth and families, giving them a chance to cope with trauma, restore families by reducing violence and give care and hope to children who are abused and neglected.

Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Treatment: Serving youth seeking drug and alcohol assessments in addition to intensive outpatient treatment.

Chemical Dependency Assessments: We use a detailed assessment to get a picture of the whole child: mental and physical health, drug and alcohol use, peer and family relationships, and legal issues.

Individual and Group Counseling: We work with youth and families to overcome the challenges of Drug and Alcohol abuse. We use a wrap around philosophy with the family to treat the issue. The counselor can recommend a range of services, from school-based to outpatient individual and group sessions to inpatient treatment. We set goals that utilize your child’s interests and strengths.

Relapse Prevention Services: Helping youth identify or create the natural resources that exist in their own lives, communities, and families.

Case Management and Referrals: Connecting youth to resources, dual diagnosis, emotional regulation, anger, mental health issues, trauma, risk management, finding the trigger element that may exist connecting them to support structures to maximize potential for sobriety.

School-Based Early Prevention and Intervention Services: In addition we have established excellent relationships with schools in the Highline School District and provide extensive school based services at Cascade Middle, Sylvester Middle, Evergreen Campus-Youth Source, New Start-Alternative

Child & Family Services

By helping children, teens and their families discover their resilience and capacity for recovery, we foster healing and hope. In schools, in homes, and in children’s care centers, we help young people and their families overcome the effects of poverty, violence, mental illness, and substance abuse. Our counselors provide a range of culturally appropriate therapies, including family therapy, play therapy for younger children, and both individual and group therapy for older children teens.

Infant Mental Health

Mental Illness is often overlooked in children and adolescents—an oversight that costs us all. Studies show that for every dollar spent on early intervention with at-risk children, about seven dollars are saved by society later—in mental health treatment, law enforcement, health care, and incarceration. Our Infant Mental Health program serves children and families struggling to heal from mental illness, violence, addiction, abuse and poverty. Our therapists, certified in infant mental health treatment, create a treatment plan that supports the whole family. We work closely with parents or caregivers, often in their own home, to help them develop the confidence and skills to care for and bond with their children. We also offer “wraparound” services, helping clients connect to resources such as housing, food, diapers, assistance navigating government agencies, and more.

Watch Arleighn's story »