Assessment flow

Before our first appointment, I typically schedule a free, pre-appointment consult, so that I can understand what you're needing support with and how I can best help.  For some people, the best way I can support them is to offer referrals; I refuse to charge an intake appointment fee simply to find this out.  That's not how we care for community.  There will be a few basic forms to fill out before this free virtual consult- a general intake form and some mood screening tools, as well as office policy information and consent.  During this appointment, you will have the ability to ask any questions you have up front and we can make sure we're a good fit.   At the end of that consult, we will schedule the formal intake.

Intake

Before the intake, there will be additional forms to fill out.  These largely are rating tools- either yes/no if you experience a symptom or to rank how severely you experience specific symptoms.  Don't overthink them, these tools are consistent within a single person. (in other words- some people worry about giving the "right" answer compared to others- these tools work best compared to your own baseline).

The intake typically is scheduled for 60-90 minutes; when I schedule a long intake this way, it prevents me from having to bring people back for a second half of the intake- it lets me charge people less. If you have limits in time, attention, or tolerance, please let me know and we can plan to keep our appointments short or plan to stop early as you need.

One of the most important pieces of the intake is to understand your mental health patterns and mediations.  Some people have an easier time identifying patterns than others, but some things to consider:

• Do you feel better or worse at certain times of day, week, month, or year?
• Does the winter weather impact you?
• Do you have life-impacting symptoms relating to your menstrual cycle?
• Do you feel exhausted in the morning and alert at night?
• do you feel better or worse around specific activities (before or after)
• Do you get "Sunday Scaries" (unpleasant feelings) before your work or school week?
• Do you feel better after engaging in specific leisure activities?
• Do you feel energized or exhausted by socializing?
• if you're on or have been on mental health medications in the past, the more information I can get about that treatment, the better!  When I collect medication history or create a medication record, I look for:
• name of medication
• what it was supposed to help with
• dose amount when started. if the dose was increased, maximum dose used or dose when stopped?
• reason it was stopped (if not currently on this medication)
• any side effects or other important notes
• for example- "when i first started this medication i was really nauseated but i started taking it after breakfast and it got better" or "I have a headache when I increase the dose of this medication, but it's not too bad, and it gets better after about a month." or "we had to decrease this medication because of this specific side effect, but it works okay and no side effect at the lower dose." 
• results of genetic (psychopharmacological) testing

Don't worry if you don't have all of this info- or even most of this info; we'll collect what we can.

Ongoing Clients

At the end of the intake, we consider your mental health history, current symptoms and functioning, and come up with several options targeted at your key symptoms or functioning concerns.  One option for clients who prefer to continue receiving care from their primary care provider or who attend college, live or work outside of Ohio for long periods of time, is to come up with care options that they can put in place with their current provider.

The typical frequency of follow ups for new clients is every 2-4 weeks, based on stability and client preference.  Some clients may need to be seen more frequently in the beginning. As clients show increasing stability, the appointment frequency stretches to every 3 to 6 months. 

All clients have access to confidential messaging to reach Nurse Daniel directly; in the case of urgent need, Nurse Daniel sets aside multiple 'emergency' appointments weekly.