We feel very fortunate to be well and healthy and able to continue to do the work we love.
We have been working remotely for several months now, and although we miss the camaraderie of the office, we find the telehealth options have been working well. Like everyone, we have had to adjust to a different way of working and a need for some different resources. We have done some research and training regarding remote cognitive assessments and have come to the decision that we feel it preferable to conduct this face to face. We have, however, been pleased with the increased options for some standardised questionnaires and checklists to be administered via telehealth. We are now also able to remotely administer a number of tests of academic skills as well as attention and memory.
Counselling appointments will continue to be offered via telehealth, and we are now opening up a small number of face to face appointments. We continue to restrict the number of people attending the office and in the waiting room and follow best practice guidelines to ensure a safe working environment. This has reduced the number of concurrent face to face appointments we can offer. Pre Covid-19, we had the ability to have three psychologists conducting appointments in the office at the same time; we are now restricting it to one individual or family at a time.
Once again, our assessment waiting list has become unwieldy. At present, we are unable to offer further assessment dates in 2020. It is not practical to continue to offer appointments into 2021 when we are uncertain if there will be further interruptions such as increased restrictions. We have therefore made the decision to stop accepting new referrals for assessment at the moment. We will work through our current list of assessments booked and deferred from March before opening up new assessment bookings. Please watch the website for details.
We strive to offer a thorough and thoughtful approach to referrals. Lizette, Katie and Michaela continue to discuss and collaborate on cases and conduct some joint assessments, feedbacks and parent planning appointments.
Although we are not able to accept all the requests for assessments we receive, we are still able to offer an extended appointment (with parents only) to review documentation, provide a further opinion, make recommendations for further assessment or intervention and help plan priorities and consider alternatives. It is our experience that parents find these type of appointments very practical and helpful.
Lizette, Katie, Michaela and Bernie.