Intake

The first step in beginning services at our office is to complete our intake procedure. This involves speaking with our Administration staff and providing the necessary information for us to set up a file for your family. We will need detailed contact information and a summary of the issue and the type of service you're seeking.

During this first contact, we will discuss the details of our services, including cost, payment options, our location and parking availability, etc. If you have a health insurance policy with coverage for Psychology Services, you may be able to submit your receipts and get reimbursed in whole or in part. Talk to your insurance provider, and make sure to let us know if they require any particular details on our receipts. If you have a contract with Family Services for Children With Disabilities (through the Alberta government), you may also be eligible for funding coverage.

Your personal information is kept secure and confidential; we will not disclose or share any details of your file unless we have your permission in writing (for example, to collaborate with your child's school), or if we are required by law (such as in cases where there is indication that a child or adult is at risk of being abused or of harming themselves or someone else).

Before we can begin service with any client (adult or child), we need a signed authorization from the individual or their guardian. Our professional ethics lay out specific rules about providing services and sharing information in cases where parents are separated or have split custody agreements. We may need written permission from both parents. Please contact our office if you have any questions.

When your intake file is complete, we will schedule sessions for your services.

Assessment

In general, our assessments include four (or sometimes five) parts:

• a History Interview
• one or more Testing Sessions
  
• (if necessary, an Observation at school)
  
• File Review and Report Writing time
• a Feedback Conference
  

History Interview

The process starts with a History Interview, where the parents first meet with the clinician (the child is not present for this session), bringing a completed History Questionnaire Form that outlines the issue and the child's health and developmental history. During the interview, the clinician will gather more specific details about the problem and the family's goals, and will explain what the assessment process will look like. The parents and the clinician will come to an agreement about the services that will occur. Often, the parents will be given one or more formal Parent and Teacher questionnaires to complete and return to us. These will form part of the assessment data and scores. We also ask for a copy of recent school report cards, or any previous reports written by doctors, educators, or other therapy professionals that will help us understand the child.

 

Testing

Depending on what type of issue is being assessed, testing may be booked for anywhere from 1.0 to 4.0 hours. Each testing session is usually 1.0 - 2.0 hours in length, but these can be broken up for younger children or others with a limited attention span to help us get the most accurate results. The clinician will use formal assessment tools (i.e. "tests") to measure things like the child's cognitive ability (i.e. how effectively he processes, remembers, and retrieves information), his academic performance (i.e. how much knowledge he can effectively use when he performs tasks like reading, writing, math, and sciences), or his overall development pattern, such as when assessing for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

 

Observation

If the problem issue includes difficulty with socializing or behaviour in a group, the clinician can also perform an observation. This usually involves a visit to the child's school, although it may occur in the home or in the community under some circumstances. These visits let the clinician gather important information about how the child responds to specific situations in his daily life, and helps her get a deeper understanding of his strengths and weaknesses.

 

File Review and Report Writing

An essential part of our thorough assessments, File Review and Report Writing involve careful study of all of the information available about the child so that we can make a valid diagnosis and give helpful recommendations.

It takes several hours to interpret all of the information and write a comprehensive report. This work involves looking at the scores obtained in testing, the background information from the History Questionnaire, the Parent and Teacher Questionnaires, and the clinician's observation notes. We put a lot of effort into making sure that we understand and can explain to the family what it all means about the child's abilities and what he needs to succeed.

 

Feedback Conference

This session is the conclusion of the process. The clinician meets for a last time with the parents to go over the results of the assessment and explain the list of recommendations.

 

The entire assessment process, from the History Interview to the Feedback Conference, usually takes about 4-6 weeks to complete, depending on how our clinician's schedule matches up with the family's availability for booking.

 

Counselling

Our counselling process begins, like our assessments, with a History Interview. Here, parents share a completed History Questionnaire Form and discuss in detail the issue they'd like to address. They come to an agreement with the clinician about how the counselling services will be structured, such as whether sessions will be booked for the child only, for one or both parents, for the family as a whole, or in some combination of the three.

Counselling services are usually booked in a block of 8 sessions, so that there is enough time to develop a plan and begin achieving goals.

 

 

Consultation

Consultation is a less-structured service, and can be booked as a single, stand-alone session for parents to discuss and get professional advice about a particular issue. If they like, the family's file can be kept open so that they can call and book another appointment whenever they would like to follow up, troubleshoot, or touch base. The purpose of consultation sessions is for the clinician and parents to spend focused time together developing a plan to address a specific issue, which may include having the family put a plan into place at home, or may lead to follow-up with a formal assessment or counselling services.