Stories from CARES Northwest
Learn more about the services we provide directly from our staff and the families we serve.
Endearing Patient Moments
When kids come to CARES Northwest for child abuse evaluation or therapy appointments, we see them for who they are, not just for what they experienced. The children who walk through our doors are just like kids everywhere: they’re creative, they’re thoughtful, they’re messy, and – let’s be honest – sometimes they’re very funny.
Like the three-year-old who demanded a second opinion when our pediatrician told her she needed to keep wearing her cast – and then later grudgingly revised her judgment after a lengthy discussion with him about Paw Patrol.
Or the 13-year-old girl who mercilessly schooled our nurse practitioner on K-Pop music trivia.
The 8-year-old who enjoyed our facility dog Harmony so much that he insisted we tell his mother she needed to get him a dog so he could “live his best life.”
The kindergartener who, when the interviewer stepped out for a moment, forgot people were observing from another room and started checking himself out in the two-way mirror, told himself he was “looking good,” and then busted out some dance moves.
Moments like these delight us because it’s just kids being kids… which is exactly what we’re rooting for. Abuse is something that can happen to a child; it does not need to define who they are.
At CARES, we give kids the space to be themselves – to be silly, to ask questions, to have fun. They have our full attention, and we take our conversations with them seriously, no matter what they choose to talk about. We want them to feel valued for all the wonderful things that make them unique. And when they leave us, they will know we don’t just care about what happened to them, we care about them.
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