Present Arrangements for Clinic

1. Referrals for diagnostic work cannot be undertaken for Laois children, as I work with the HSE, covering Laois.  The HSE Psychology Service in Laois/Offaly has a private practice policy which outlines this.

2. The private clinic is a very limited service due to time constraints with work and family commitments.  I make every effort to provide good quality assessments in the time that I have available for the private clinic.   

3. Assessment appointments can be arranged by downloading a referral form from www.mpcts.ie.  If you are having any difficulty in doing this, email the service, and a referral form will be sent to you.  Appointments can only be arranged once a completed form has been received.  If the consent from both parents is not available, then no assessment can be completed by the clinic.  Forms with only one parent signature will be returned to parent.    

4. The running of the clinic (including the administration, dealing with enquiries, production of reports and clinical time spent with clients) operates within the office hours.  From September, the service will be operating half a day a week, during office hours.   

5. I work for the HSE and cannot spend any of my HSE hours on the private clinic; therefore, no calls relating to the private clinic can be received at my HSE office.   Messages left at HSE offices that are in relation to private enquiries or work, will not be received and phone calls will not be returned.  This is to protect HSE time.

6. Referrals and appointments are taken strictly in the order that they are received.  No influence can be made on the availability of these appointments.  At this present time, the waiting time between receipt of referral form and the appointment is approximately five months.

7. As the private clinic time is very limited, assessments are the only service provided.  Follow-up appointments or therapy cannot be provided due to time constraints.  Psychologists working full-time privately may be able to offer follow-up interventions.  The Psychological Society of Ireland has a website with names of psychologists (http://www.psychologicalsociety.ie/find-a-psychologist/) or alternatively you may look at the Irish Council for Psychotherapists (www.psychotherapy-ireland.com/find/). 

8. The reports that follow the Psychoeducational and Diagnostic Assessment appointments involve a considerable amount of work (scoring of psychometrics and other questionnaires, interpreting information, preparing and producing report).   There is a waiting period of six weeks between the assessment appointment and the report being posted.  This may be longer around holiday time.  Please bear this in mind if you need the report before a specific deadline (i.e., the end of school term or Department of Education deadline for Resource Teaching), as again it will not be possible to influence the time that it takes to obtain a report.  Please do not ask for your report to be hurried. 

9. The report that is provided outlines my opinion following the assessment.  Please do not ask me to amend my opinion.  I will correct information that is factually inaccurate. 

10. No court work is undertaken as it interferes too much with day-to-day clinical work. 

11. In addition to the payment for appointments, please be advised that if any further time is spent in relation to your child or yourself (such as observation in school, formal liaison with school, school review, multi-disciplinary or multi-agency meeting, etc), then this also needs to be paid for.  It is assumed that the person who commissioned the initial assessment/appointment with the clinic will remain responsible for fees.  Any new arrangements need to be confirmed in writing prior to the work being undertaken. 

12. If further letters are required (e.g., for School, Accountant, etc), then a written request for this should be forwarded, accompanied by a €30.00 administration fee.   There is a €60.00 fee for the completion of DCA forms as more time is required for this.

13. All enquires will be processed in date order, within the time available for the clinic.   The time taken to respond to an enquiry will not be influenced by further emails. 

14. All appointments need to be paid for at the time of the assessment, whether commissioned by parent, self or school.   

15. Clinical recommendations are only offered following a clinical assessment/review.   For a specific recommendation to be considered, it needs to be discussed during the assessment appointment.  Clinical recommendations cannot be made for assessments undertaken in the past. 

16. The private clinic reserves the right to decline referrals.  This will be upheld if there is a history of impolite behaviour, including face-to-face or through emails.  

17. The waiting time for an assessment appointment is approximately five months, which needs to be borne in mind with regarding to Department of Education and other deadlines – reports are ready after six weeks after assessment fully completed, taking into consideration annual leave/holidays.  Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the waiting list is longer, as the clinic had to cancel pre-arranged appointments during the lock-down, and these have been rescheduled with reduced capacity due to clean-up procedures.  

18. There are certain assessments that have to be undertaken differently with the social distancing requirements that have been introduced with the Covid-19 pandemic.  For psychoeducational assessments, I will need to wear a facemask during the time that I am close to the person being assessed.  ADOS assessments cannot proceed in the same way, and I am utilising different assessment tools being chosen on the basis of the child/adult’s needs.                                                                                                                                                       
19. The private assessment clinic has no phone-number. If you have been provided with a mobile number, this is my personal mobile and request that you do not use it to make contact or enquiries, and do not pass it on to others.  This stance is to ensure that I protect my non-work time and maintain a healthy work-life balance.