Hello Developing Minds family

You have probably heard that there are new government regulations requiring that we have enough space in our waiting area (and clinic rooms) for all clients to have 1.5 metres between them and other person.

Unfortunately given the number of families who come in and see us, this means we cannot continue to offer sessions at the same rate and still comply with these regulations.

In addition, we are concerned about the level of risk for our families in having so many of them come through our clinics each week.

This means we have had to make the very difficult decision to significantly reduce our face to face sessions and increase our telehealth sessions - and in the very near future it may be that all sessions are offered by telehealth.

Regardless, from this point onwards, families (under funding models which allow this) must have their next and all subsequent sessions via telehealth OR cancel all their next sessions for now until further notice.

In other words, you can choose to either:

a) have next sessions via telehealth (video-conferencing).

b) cancel your sessions for now and we can try to refer you to another service which may be still offering face to face appointments. We are currently trying to find some of these, unfortunately so far the only practices we have found offering face to face sessions have very significant waits. You can try the Australian Psychological Society - www.psychology.

While some of you may find telehealth sessions more convenient, and some of your children/young people will enjoy this (and we know there is good evidence for telehealth being an effective form of treatment) I also know that this will be extremely difficult and disappointing for some of you.

As director I would like to say that I’m extremely sorry for any distress you are experiencing because of this decision. Please know this is not something we have done lightly, and many countless hours (sleepless nights!) have been spent trying to work out how we can continue to support all the families we work with - and care greatly about.

One of the admin team will give you a call shortly to make sure you understand this policy, and to teach you how to use telehealth sessions if this would be helpful.

You are welcome to contact me directly if you have any questions or feedback about this. My email address is below.

Best wishes, and apologies again.

Kirrilie Smout

kirriliesmout@developingminds.net.au