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Washington’s Mental Health Referral Service for Children and Teens

Washington’s Mental Health Referral Service for Children and Teens connects patients and families with evidence-supported outpatient mental health services in their community. This free, telephone-based referral service is funded by Washington Healthcare Authority and operated by Seattle Children’s.

The Mental Health Referral Service will provide thorough mental health referrals for children and teens 17 and younger from across Washington.

See our program highlights from the Referral Service.

How do families access this service?

Interpreter Services

  • To call our program using an interpreter, call 1-866-583-1527.
    • Listen for the your preferred language and select the number provided.
    • You will be placed on a brief hold while an interpreter is selected.
    • Once an interpreter is on the line, ask them to call our program directly at 1-833-303-5437.

What can patients and families expect?

  • After matches are found, a referral specialist will call and email the family to access providers or agencies in real-time.
  • A few weeks after providing the referrals, a referral specialist will contact the family to see if they were able to make an appointment and ask if additional resources are needed.
  • If no appointment has been made, we will address any barriers or link the family to another provider.

Washington’s Mental Health Referral Service flyers for families

Download informational flyers about our program for families. All flyers are PDFs.

What can primary care providers expect?

Referral information provided to your patient will also be faxed to you.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Who connects patients and families with evidence-supported mental health services?

Our mental health referral specialists, trained in evidence-supported models of coaching and relational support.

How does the referral service identify providers?

Washington’s Mental Health Referral Service keeps a database of licensed mental health outpatient providers that we update daily. Information comes from health plan panels of providers and outreach calls we make.

Pediatric mental health providers in Washington state who want to be added to the database can call 833-303-5437 or fill out an online form.

If you are a provider who is already in the database and would like to update your availability, please fill out our Provider Availability form.

The database includes details such as:

  • If the provider has openings for new patients
  • Provider’s mental health specialties and types of treatment offered
  • Which health insurance or state programs the provider accepts
What evidence-supported therapies do providers offer?

A goal of the service is to match families with an evidence-supported practice when possible. These therapies include:

  • Addiction treatment (substances/internet/gaming)
  • Applied behavioral analysis (ABA)
  • Behavioral therapy
  • Cognitive behavioral intervention for tics and habit reversal therapy
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
  • Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
  • Eating disorder treatment
  • Exposure and response prevention therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Infant/parent dyad therapy
  • Insight-oriented therapy
  • Neurofeedback
  • Parent management training
  • Telemental health
  • Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy
Is this part of Seattle Children’s Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Program?

No. Seattle Children’s operates the Mental Health Referral Service for Washington state. The service is for children and teens from across Washington who need outpatient mental health services in their local communities. Patients do not need to be seen at Seattle Children’s.

For which holidays will the referral service be closed?

2024 holidays

  • New Year's Day – Monday, January 1
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Monday, January 15
  • Presidents' Day – Monday, February 19
  • Memorial Day – Monday, May 27
  • Juneteenth – Wednesday, June 19
  • Independence Day – Thursday, July 4
  • Labor Day – Monday, September 2
  • Veterans' Day – Monday, November 11
  • Thanksgiving – Thursday, November 28
  • Christmas Day – Wednesday, December 25
Who Can access the Mental Health Referral Service provider database?

The MHRS provider database can only be accessed by the Referral Service staff. The best way to receive information on mental health providers in the database is to have the family and/or adolescent seeking services call our main line so we can provide a tailored list of resources to match the situation, insurance and availability needs for treatment. 

Why is the Mental Health Referral Service provider database not publicly available?

In developing the Mental Health Referral Service, a common message was that families receive long lists of providers in their community to outreach and end up reaching dead ends because providers either aren't a good fit or do not have current availability. The Referral Service was created to address this barrier by providing 1-3 individualized resources for each adolescent or family of a child that would be a good fit for their symptoms and have availability. The Referral Service ensures accurate, up-to-date information before sharing referral lists with families through outreach. Ensuring that data is current and accurate for all providers within the database to maintain a publicly available list is not feasible without information being potentially outdated.

In addition to tailored referrals for families, the provider information in our database was gathered with consent from each mental health provider to be used by the Referral Staff; we do not currently have consent to share this information with outside agencies.

Contact Us

Family line: 833-303-5437
Interpreter line: 1-866-583-1527

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