Our Approach
Dr. P Jee Inc
Dr. C Jones Inc
Understanding our clinical and therapeutic approach.
Our Clinic is a psychiatric clinic that provides a range of psychiatric care. Using a team-based model we offer standard psychiatric care, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), individual sessions, groups, and other psychotherapies. We work to provide timely and comprehensive mental health and substance use assessment and treatment.
Our focus is holistic mental health, as we encourage and empower patients to discover and celebrate their strengths and competencies. Our goal is that they achieve an understanding of their own goals and learn the skills they need to achieve a life worth living.
Our multi-disciplinary team collaborates to deliver inclusive non-judgmental and validating psychiatric care to patients from the underserved North-East. We work to help patients break down the barriers they may have to change.
We are a referral-only practice. All patients will need to be referred to us by their primary care physician.
Patients will have contact with both an allied mental health worker and a Psychiatrist. Patients are encouraged to attend relevant group therapy sessions if indicated for their disorders. It is an important part of their treatment plan if indicated.
REFERRALS AND OUR PROCESS
Our process of care will include orientation to patients' goals of treatment, assessment, investigations, and diagnosis. Then together we create a collaborative treatment plan.
Patients and referring sources are informed when we are in receipt of the referral. Patients are sent an information pack at the time of referral, including information on Team-based Practice and Consent to Virtual Care. Referrals are triaged for urgency and the patient is placed on a relevant waitlist.
We aim to see urgent referrals within 1-3 weeks, semi-urgent in 4-8 weeks and routine referrals as appointments become available.
When an appointment becomes available the patient will be sent a questionnaire to complete and offered a telephone consultation with a mental health clinician.
The telephone consultation will be followed, ideally within 2-4 weeks, by a joint Psychiatric consultation. Patients will also be asked to complete a relevant screening tool at the start of the visit.
Joint consultations will, as far as possible, be facilitated by the mental health clinician who completed the telephone consultation together with a Psychiatrist. A differential diagnosis and individualized treatment plan will be developed at that consultation.
The patient’s treatment plan will be reviewed at least 6-monthly. The intention is that, once their condition has been stabilized and treated, many patients will be discharged back to the Family Doctor for ongoing management. Patients can be re-referred at any time.
Our program has a rolling intake so that new patients can join at specific points throughout the year.
Understanding Our Therapies
Acceptance is that their experiences and behaviours are valid; and that all behaviours are caused
Change requires individuals to make positive changes to manage their emotions so that they can move forward to create a life worth living.
This therapy is achieved through learning skills such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotion regulation.
DBT stage one is usually a 12-month program that includes individual counseling, 1-year skills training group, and telephone coaching.
This program includes weekly 2-hour group skills training, individual sessions (1 hour every 2 weeks) and access to the DBT phone.
Occasionally patients may see therapists outside of the clinic for individual sessions. We accept patients who are under the care of another Psychiatrist into the DBT Program. The patient must go through the clinic’s usual referral process for assessment first, including the waitlist process. The patient will continue to have psychiatric reviews with their other treating Psychiatrist.
The skills training runs for 48 weeks but on average, the program will take a year to complete, with breaks.
All groups are run with two members of staff.
The DBT Phone is available from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm on workdays (Monday – Friday, except holidays).
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
(DBT)
DBT teaches people two opposite strategies: acceptance and change.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT teaches people to examine how they make sense of what is happening around them and how their perceptions affect the way they feel.
This therapy helps people see how their thoughts, actions, and feelings are connected. In CBT people learn how to check their thoughts for accuracy and how life experiences have shaped their thinking.
All patients begin with Mood Skills, a 12-week CBT based group therapy, and then progress if they wish to either CBT Anxiety or CBT depression.
CBT for depression is a 10-week group. CBT for anxiety is a 12-week group.
Introductory Mood Skills Group
This group runs weekly for 1.5hrs over 12 weeks. The group includes psychoeducation and introductions to Mindfulness, Behavioral Activation, and CBT techniques.
After attending the Mood Skills Group patients can continue with either CBT Anxiety or CBT Depression Groups. Each option runs as a 1.5hr weekly group session. CBT Anxiety is 12 weeks and CBT Depression is 10 weeks.
If patients miss two consecutive groups, they will be contacted to see if they wish to continue.
We aim to run all groups with two staff members. At times, due to leave and scheduling issues, this may not be possible, and a Psychiatrist may facilitate a group alone.
Where indicated patients in the groups may also be offered individual CBT sessions. The individual sessions are 1 hour every 2 weeks.
Standard Psychiatric Care
Involves assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and medication management. The Psychiatrist and patient will determine the length of psychiatric care.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term used to describe a form of treatment that is based on “talking work” done with a therapist. The goal is to relieve distress by discussing and expressing feelings; to help change attitudes, behavior, and habits that may be unhelpful, and help promote healthier ways of coping.
Psychotherapy may be long or short-term.
