Thank you for trusting KidsPoint with your child’s allied health and medical services.

Your multidisciplinary team:

KidsPoint is a multi-disciplinary team of health professionals.

Multidisciplinary care is when professionals from a range of disciplines work together to deliver comprehensive care that addresses as many of the patient's needs as possible. At KidsPoint this care is delivered by a range of professionals, including, Psychologists, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Dietitians, Speech Therapists, Paediatricians and Therapy Assistants functioning as a team under one organisational umbrella brought together as a unique team. Your team of allied health professionals share consultation notes and reports which allow them to work on a shared care plan. As part of this shared care there may be case discussions scheduled to ensure the goals of the therapy are being met. Prior to a case discussion we will obtain consent for the appointment and the information on the billing will be provided prior to commencement.

Appointments:

All initial therapy appointments are parent only sessions and do not require the child to attend. This allows you to discuss the therapy goals and to develop a plan with your therapist openly.

After your initial appointment, the therapist will recommend the treatment plan. Appointments are made as a ‘block’ of therapy in a time slot that is most suitable. Before and after school appointments are generally not available or have an extensive waitlist. Once the block of therapy is complete, your therapist will recommend future treatment or discharge. Please note if future treatment is required you may not be able to get the same appointment time as you originally had scheduled.

Case Discussions:

As part of the shared care arrangement, all relevant professionals and disciplines involved in the provision of client care can at times meet to discuss progress through a case discussion. Members of the case conference demonstrate the level of expertise and specialisation required to contribute to the case conference within their various discipline areas. We will ensure members of the team have the authority to support recommendations/outcomes of the case conference.

Therapy Assistants:

At KidsPoint, we offer a wide range of therapies and training opportunities. Within the psychological/mental health team, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy team, KidsPoint offers training to undergraduate students who are enrolled in (or have previously completed) psychological studies or are currently studying Occupational Therapy. These students work under the title of ‘therapy assistant’.

Therapy assistants are supervised by qualified psychologists (either registered psychologists or clinical psychologists) or our Clinical director at KidsPoint. Therapy assistants are provided with an evidence-based treatment plan that is aligned with therapy goals and is overseen by a qualified therapist. Therapy assistants have regular supervision with the lead, qualified clinician to ensure that therapy goals are being achieved. The lead clinician will also organise regular, follow up appointments  with the clients parents/carer to review progress toward therapy goals, offer additional support, and discuss future planning. These follow up appointments are generally completed after the client has attended 5-6 sessions with the therapy assistant (or earlier if required). The lead clinician will also be available as needed, to discuss any immediate concerns. Throughout the treatment, confidentiality is maintained in accordance with privacy regulations.

Therapy assistants are an affordable therapy option that can be offered to support children and their families. Therapy assistants may also be able to provide occasional school/home visits, although, this is decided on a case-by-case basis.

After the initial intake appointment with the lead clinician, a therapy assistant may be suggested for a period of appointments. This will be discussed with you in the initial appointment. If you consent to your child seeing a therapy assistant you will be required to sign a consent form. If you complete an initial intake appointment and it is determined that it is not suitable for your child to engage with a therapy assistant, the lead clinician will discuss alternate options.

Therapy assistants can provide various types of support and intervention relating to: emotional identification (in self and others); emotional regulation strategies; anxiety management; anger management; social skills building; friendship/relationship skills; problem solving and decision making skills; self-esteem and confidence building and lifestyle factors (i.e., sleep hygiene, pleasant event scheduling etc.).

Therapy assistants are not suitably trained and qualified to support children who present with complex backgrounds and/or complex presentations. For example; children with a trauma- related diagnosis and/or trauma- related symptoms, children/families who have legal involvement, children who display extreme behavioural problems and/or aggressive behaviours. This is to protect your childs and therapy assistants safety, and to ensure that your child receives the most appropriate care. If you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to contact either the practice manager or the lead clinician.

Provisional Psychologists:

At KidsPoint, we offer a wide range of therapies and training opportunities. Within the psychological/mental health team, KidsPoint offers training to undergraduate students who have completed psychological studies. Once a student has commenced their approved program of study, they can be provisional registered with the Psychology Board of Australia.

Provisional registration enables students to complete unsupervised practice which contributes to the required number of hours required to become eligible for general registration as a psychologist. Although provisionally registered psychologists can practice unsupervised, at KidsPoint they are under the supervision of a board approved supervisor and have supervision weekly until their general registration is approved.

Provisional Psychologists are an affordable therapy option that can be offered to support children and their families. They may also be able to provide occasional school/home visits, although, this is decided on a case-by-case basis.

KidsPoint Fees and Billing Policy:

• We will charge you professional's fees for the services provided to you in accordance with our below schedule of fees on our website

• KidsPoint is not a NDIS registered provider so are only able to treat clients who are 'plan managed' or 'self-managed' Please check your plan prior to booking service.

• Our fees are reviewed every year. It is your responsibility to inform yourself of the current and relevant fee prior to making and confirming your appointment.

• KidsPoint is a Private Centre and we do not offer bulk billing arrangements under Medicare. There is also an out-of-pocket expense with care plans. Please contact KidsPoint or Medicare to see the out of pocket amounts for each service.

• Fee Estimates - In some cases, we will provide cost estimates for a report or an assessment. However, these are indicative only and not binding due to the unpredictability of paediatric treatment.

• We require payment for the service at the time of completion of the service. Unless you are an NDIS plan managed participant, in which case, we will provide the invoice to your plan manager.

• If accounts are not settled on the day, therapy will be put on hold until the payment is received. Please note that in the case of therapy being placed on hold, you may no longer be able to access your preferred timeslot, as it will be offered to those on our extensive wait list.

• Telehealth consultations require payment upon completion of the phone call. Our administration team will contact you for payment at that time.

• KidsPoint reserves the right to cease or refuse to provide services where fees are outstanding.

• All cancellations on the day are charged at 100% as we are unable to fill cancelled appointments at the last minute. Cancellations within 48 hours will be charged at 50%.

Privacy:

What you need to know about privacy. We respect your privacy and take it very seriously. We need to collect sensitive information about you in order to provide you with a health service. All clinical consultation notes and identifying information about you is stored in a password protected environment on a web-based clinical software program called Clinic to Cloud. This information is only accessible to your clinician, and authorised practice personnel upon whom we depend, in order to provide you with the service. Under Medicare requirements, clinicians are required to write back to referrers at certain times during the course of treatment, hence some information about you may be shared with your referrer. Please advise up front if this is of concern to you.

If you accept a referral to another clinician within the practice or externally, you are consenting to your clinician sharing information about you with the new clinician. You are entitled to access and correct your personal information kept on file at any stage, subject to exceptions in the relevant legislation.

Limitations to privacy

We will not share information with parents, partners, employers, insurers, or other people without your consent. Sometimes it is helpful to include trusted loved ones in your therapy or to share information with other health care providers – this would be done only with your consent. However, there are exceptions under the legislation where we may share information without your consent. Examples might be if we believe you are at serious risk of causing significant harm to the life, health or safety of yourself or someone else, if a child we can identify is at serious risk of harm from you or from someone else, or if we are ordered to do so by a court or other legislative body, (e.g., hostile custody disputes, insurance legal claims). Under these circumstances your clinician would make every effort to discuss this with you first.

All personal information gathered during the provision of the service will remain confidential and secure except in the following instances:

• If Subpoenaed by court

• Failure to disclose information that would put you, your child or another person at serious risk

• You approval has been obtained

Confidentiality (Psychology Specific):

We provide confidential psychological services. All information shared by the client is confidential except under these circumstances:

·         When subpoenaed by a court, or when disclosure is otherwise required or authorised by law.

·         If a client intends to harm themselves or others, as we have a duty of care to take appropriate actions to keep people safe.

·         When support and supervision between Psychologists is warranted to provide the best supports or therapies for the client. Supervision is a requirement for psychologists and is considered a foundational part of ethical and effective client care. During supervision, clients are deidentified by their treating psychologist, to protect their privacy as much as possible.

·         When a client gives permission for reports or liaisons between agencies or service providers be shared. This may include doctors, lawyers, other Psychologists or health professionals.

·         If there is an insurance issue and details about the client may need to be shared.

For further information regarding ethical codes and confidentiality in psychology, please refer to: AHPRA (https://www.ahpra.gov.au/) and/or APS (https://psychology.org.au/)

Thank you for trusting us with the care of your family.

Please contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns.