UW Care Clinic clears path for disabled

Lianne Miller once got so angry, she kicked the windshield of her father's car until it shattered. Zach Saulness was suspended from school last year for threatening violence against his classmates.

Both Eastside teenagers — she's 15, he's 16 — were born with neurodevelopmental disabilities, making communication so difficult and frustrating that both often lashed out in violent tantrums or emotional meltdowns.

But that was before their mothers found the University of Washington's CARE Clinic, where clinical and educational psychologists diagnose and treat a range of neurodevelopmental disabilities, from autism and Asperger's syndrome to learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The CARE Clinic is one of 13 community-service organizations helped by The Seattle Times Fund For The Needy, now in its 32nd year. CARE is an acronym for Clinical services, Assessment, Research and professional Education.

The clinic offers individual and group counseling along with counseling for family members and spouses. But the clinic's staff also helps families navigate a maze of services by collaborating with medical professionals and school officials, and developing plans to deal with the residential, vocational, social, financial and sometimes legal issues their clients face.

Last year, the CARE Clinic served approximately 420 families.

There is such a dearth of services in the state for those with neurodevelopmental disabilities, especially adults, that some clients make weekly trips to Seattle from as far away as Bellingham and Yakima. The clinic's youngest client is 2 ½, and the eldest is 79.

Most of the clinic's therapists are doctoral students from Seattle universities. The clinic offers them a unique training ground, where they can help people with neurodevelopmental disabilities attain independence and lead successful lives.

A disproportionate number of people with neurological differences also battle mental-health issues such as depression and anxiety. So a big part of what Director Julie Osterling and her staff do is teach clients empowerment and self-advocacy skills.

"If you start to see yourself as incapable, you think you can't do anything. When they come here, we show them how to be successful because we understand the underlying neurological roadblocks," Osterling said.

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