Sunday, April 23, 2023 | Special Advertising Section 1 R 50 SPONSORED CONTENT PROVIDED BY RYTHER August was sleeping on a piece of cardboard in a University District alley when Abbie Woods first met her. Woods shared some food and supplies and began checking on August a few times each week. The Committee to End Homelessness in King County estimates that 5,000-10,000 youth and at-risk young adults in the county experience houselessness every year. One such youth, August, moved to Seattle when she was 16 to live with her dad only to learn that he was houseless, didn’t only need housing. She also needed medical, dental and mental health services. The need August is far from alone in those needs. The number of young people who need mental health services continues to increase annually. According to a study by the National Survey of Children’s Health, the number of kids between the ages of 3 and 17 experiencing depression and anxiety rose by 33% from 2016 to 2020. Dr. Katja Ermann, Psy.D, LMHC, CMHS and the Finding relief from the youth mental health crisis Ryther helps children, youth young adults and their families find their path to healing and hope. We strive for excellence and provide an array of services that are needed and wanted by the community we serve. Learn more at ryther.org. manager of outpatient services for Ryther, a community mental health agency for youths up to age 24, says they’ve seen this reflected in the demand for their services. It’s been unprecedented since the start of the pandemic. “For a while we were getting more phone calls per day from people looking for services than we had clinicians,” Ermann says. “We still have schools calling every week saying, ‘please, can we get a clinician in here? We need more days, we need more time, we need more help.’ We tend to see kids who are pretty severely impacted by their challenges, so it's hard for everybody right now. We see teachers that are really overwhelmed.” The outreach Abbie Woods, SUDP and medication-assisted treatment coordinator who works for Ryther, is part of a new program where workers provide medication and care to the houseless community. They support this population at drop-in centers, shelters, hospitals, jails or detention centers as well as in street outreach and encampments. Woods describes her work as intensive case management where she can provide everything from medication for people struggling with substance abuse disorders to support in setting and reaching goals like housing, education, employment, etc. “We try to walk their path with them and help them build a life that makes them feel like they don’t need to use drugs anymore,” Woods says. August and Woods formed a bond. Six months later, Woods found August housing and the day August moved in, she told Woods that she wanted to stop using drugs. “We hadn’t really talked about that yet,” Woods says. “She just saw that someone really cared about her and I think that getting inside was the final push she needed to make that change.” The schools Ermann, Woods and the team at Ryther believe we will continue to feel the effects of the pandemic and the lockdown on youth mental health for a long time to come. “It’s not only that kids missed out on a lot of appropriate development experiences,” Ermann says, “but there was also racial unrest and a housing crisis. All this and the financial challenges people are having. It all impacts the kids, too.” As a result, the folks at Ryther plan to expand their services into more schools, stating that it’s important to provide resources for kids where they are. This also takes some of the heat off teachers. But overall, Ermann’s goal is to reach kids early. “If we intervene with the family early,” Ermann says, “we are going to improve the outcomes for the family as a whole as well as for the child who just has that much less time to develop problematic behaviors or mental health challenges.” The happy ending As for August, soon she was drug free, getting needed medical, dental and mental health care and had plans to get her high school degree. Today she’s a high school graduate and enrolled in Seattle Central College where she plants to get an associate degree in human services to work in geriatrics. And she recently adopted a service animal, a cockatiel named Pika. August and Abbie Woods. Donate today! August and her cockatiel, Pika.
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