The Basics
Founded in 1968 as a grass roots movement, Youth Eastside Services (YES) began as a drop in center where kids could talk to sympathetic adult volunteers. Today YES has broadened their scope to deal with an escalation in violence, substance abuse and teen alienation by focusing on the family as a whole. Through intervention, outreach and prevention, the goal of YES is to create a community that cares for its young people. With three locations off the Eastern shore of Washington state, Youth Eastside Services is one of the largest providers of outpatient youth and family counseling and substance abuse services in the Puget Sound region.
Treatment and Staff
Youth Eastside Services offers comprehensive mental health and substance abuse counseling, prevention and education programs, as well as wrap-around services to help families with basic needs. Evidence-based treatment is utilized in the hopes of helping teens become healthy and self-reliant and also to make families stronger and supportive. At YES, treatment happens in stages, depending on where kids fall on the spectrum.
Prevention services begin in the Alcohol and Drug Education Class, offered at the Bellevue location, typically on the fourth Saturday of the month. People sign up for a four-hour, one-time seminar that teaches parents and kids separately about the effects of drug and alcohol use. Topics include how drugs and alcohol affect the brain and body, legal consequences, recognizing a problem and learning to make healthy decisions. Maximum class size for adults is 25 and 15 for adolescents.
If the substance abuse is ongoing, AWARE is a 10-week program designed to help parents and teens to better understand substance abuse and the impact of an adolescent’s addiction on self and others. The goal is to get these kids to stop using by splitting them up from their parents and having them participate in group therapy one night a week for 90 minutes (for two-and-a-half months). AWARE also includes individual counseling and at least two random urinalyses. Upon completion, family interviews determine future recommendations.
One of those recommendations might be the Alcohol and Drug Recovery Group, which meets in Bellevue on Monday evenings from 6 to 7:30 pm. The goal of this free group is to help clients maintain sobriety and to promote healthy choices. This is a process group for sober kids so all participants must complete a substance use assessment before joining. Clients are encouraged to attend 12-step meetings for additional support, but it is not a requirement.
Certain groups are offered that could very effectively supplement the substance abuse programs. BGLAD (Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Drop in Group) is free to kids between the ages of 12 and 19. They get the chance to share in a group facilitated by a licensed therapist, the objective being to give them a safe place to share and ask questions as well as receive information and support.
The DBT Skills Group is for teens between the ages of 13 and 18 who are struggling with impulse behavior, self-harm, anger and relationship challenges. There is a charge for this 16-week module that meets once a week for 90 minutes. Clients learn how to control and regulate their attention, regulate emotions and be more present in life. Clients in this group must also see a DBT individual therapist twice a month. The DBT group tops out at 10 participants and takes place in Bellevue on Tuesdays and at the Redmond location on Wednesdays.
In Summary
Drugs and alcohol can be a symptom of so many other problems, things kids have no idea how to handle other than to numb out, including gangs, bullying, sexual identity and abuse. Youth Eastside Services offers an alternative to using in order to cope. With an emphasis on education, prevention, awareness and building a strong support system, YES takes an evidence-based, therapeutic approach to treating substance abuse as well as its underlying causes and conditions.
Youth Eastside Services Main Office
999 164th Ave. NE
Bellevue, WA 98008
Youth Eastside Services Cost: $240 and up (30 days). Reach Youth Eastside Services at (425) 747-4937 or by email. Find Youth Eastside Services on Facebook
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Sponsored DISCLAIMER: This is a paid advertisement for California Behavioral Health, LLC, a CA licensed substance abuse treatment provider and not a service provided by The Fix. Calls to this number are answered by CBH, free and without obligation to the consumer. No one who answers the call receives a fee based upon the consumer’s choice to enter treatment. For additional info on other treatment providers and options visit www.samhsa.gov.
