Communication Policies

Urgent Communication

If you or your child are experiencing a medical or psychiatric emergency, please go to your nearest emergency department or call 911. For all other urgent patient needs, please call my office phone at 802-491-3220 or submit a message via the SimplePractice patient portal and leave a detailed message highlighting concerns and include the best phone number at which you can be reached. I am typically able to respond to messages within one business day. Please note that unless we have made specific arrangements, I do not respond to communication outside of business hours.

Text Communication

To protect your privacy, I do not provide treatment or advice via SMS text messages.

I ask that you use the secure SimplePractice Patient Portal to communicate with me rather than via SMS texts as confidentiality of standard SMS texts cannot be guaranteed.

Email Communication

Currently, email correspondence may be used for administrative matters, such as for patient portal set-up, scheduling, or billing questions; and for case-by-case documentation exchange. Treatment questions, urgent issues, and refill requests can NEVER be provided through the administrative email. 

Social Media Communication

To protect the privacy and confidentiality of my patients, I do not “friend” patients on social media platforms.

Collateral Communication

Child and adolescent psychiatry often entails a significant investment of time outside of face-to-face patient appointment times.  This time is commonly spent coordinating care with other mental health providers, discussing impressions with other therapists and school professionals, and managing medical concerns in concert with primary care physicians and other healthcare professionals. It is important to note that confidentiality is taken extremely seriously in my practice and that such aforementioned communication can only be accomplished with a signed (by patient/parent or guardian) Release of Information Form on file. It is also important to note that communication with such collaterals is typically recommended, and is often necessary, to ensure optimal quality of care for you/your child.