CONSENTS TO SERVICE(S)- Adult patients 

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES RISKS AND BENEFITS

The TAP Clinic offers a range of mental health services that include psychotherapy, medication management, and assessment services.  The mental health services that you receive will consist of meeting with one or more providers who will assist you in setting and working towards goals for desired changes.

Mental health services can have benefits and risks. Because such services often involve discussing unpleasant aspects of your life, you may experience uncomfortable feelings like sadness, guilt, anger, frustration, loneliness, and helplessness. On the other hand, mental health services have also been shown to have benefits. Service may lead to a better understanding of yourself, better relationships, solutions to specific problems, and/or significant reductions in feelings of distress; however, there are no guarantees as to what you will experience.

INTAKE SESSIONS

The TAP Clinic is a specialty clinic, which means that every provider has specific areas of expertise in which they are trained and provide services. As part of a specialty clinic, the intake process is very important to determine whether your specific needs and goals are a fit with both our clinic and a particular provider. Regardless of what service you seek at TAP, some form of an intake process is required.

For most individual, couples, family, or parenting therapy services, the intake process consists of 1-3 intake sessions with an intake provider. These sessions are meant to assess your psychological and therapeutic history, identify your concerns and goals for treatment, and for us to make a recommendation for the type of services we believe will best help you achieve your goals. Please note that the person you meet with for your intake(s) may not be your therapy provider.

Intakes for group therapy typically consist of only one session with an intake provider. These sessions are meant to assess your fit for the group, determine your goals for the group, and communicate any group expectations.

If during the intake process we determine that we are not able to provide the services we feel best fit your concerns or treatment goals, we will make recommendations for other providers in the community who may better suit your needs. Please be aware that an intake is not considered an agreement for treatment, but rather an assessment of fit for services.

INDIVIDUAL, COUPLES, OR FAMILY THERAPY SESSIONS

After you have completed the intake process, you will be matched with a TAP provider; otherwise, you will be provided with referrals to other clinics. Your provider will offer you some first impressions of what your work will include and an initial treatment plan, outlining the services they recommend. This decision is meant to be a mutual one; you should evaluate this information along with your own opinions about whether you agree with the treatment plan and feel comfortable working with your provider(s). If you and your provider agree to begin psychotherapy, your individual, couples, or family sessions will generally occur once per week for 50 minutes, or on a schedule mutually agreeable to you and your provider.

GROUP THERAPY SESSIONS

You may be interested in or referred to one of our group therapies. Group therapies typically range from 1-2 hours and occur weekly. The duration of treatment varies based on the group (e.g., the SPACE group is 10 weeks; DBT groups are 6 months). You will join other individuals, families, or couples for group psychotherapy, led by one or more group leaders. The aim of all groups is skills acquisition from expert group leaders, combined with discussion and learning with/from other group members. While we strive to maintain confidentiality within our groups, we are unable to guarantee this. Breaches of confidentiality are taken very seriously and may be grounds for dismissal from the group.

ASSESSMENT & TESTING SERVICES

Individuals seeking assessment services will meet with an assessment specialist to identify goals of the assessment. The assessor will conduct an initial intake and will then schedule additional testing appointments and a feedback session with you. The initial intake appointment lasts approximately 50 minutes and is intended to gather information on various symptoms that are relevant to the overall assessment. The assessor will meet with you and, at times, a collateral source such as a parent, partner, or treatment team provider. In addition, you may be asked to fill out questionnaires to help gather different sources of information before completing the actual testing.

Testing appointments can range from one to four hours depending on the nature of the assessment.

During these appointments, standardized assessment batteries will be used to answer the initial assessment question. You will be given an estimation of the expected assessment time and fees and will have the opportunity to decline part or all additional testing. A final feedback session (30-60 minutes) will be scheduled to discuss the assessment findings and to provide clinical recommendations.

Minor Addendums

CONSENT TO SERVICES

One risk of therapy with youth involves disagreement among parents and/or disagreement between parents and the provider regarding the youth’s treatment or assessment. If such disagreements occur, your provider will strive to listen carefully so that s/he can understand your perspective and fully explain his/her perspective. We can resolve such disagreements or we can agree to disagree, so long as this enables your child’s progress or ability to receive services. Ultimately, parents decide whether services will continue. If either parent decides that services should be discontinued, we will honor that decision, unless there are extraordinary circumstances. In most cases, if your youth is receiving therapy servies, we will ask that you allow for a few closing sessions with your child to appropriately end the treatment relationship.