Behavioral Health at Hyde Park Pediatrics
Brie Ostreicher, LMHC and Lori-Anne McElmoyle, LICSW
Hyde Park Pediatrics supports the emotional, behavioral, and mental health of our patients and families. Our integrated behavioral health providers work with our clinical team to provide care in the medical home for our families. Brie Ostreicher,LMHC and Lori-Anne McElmoyle, LICSW are licensed behavioral health clinicians providing assessment, intervention, and consultation to Hyde Park Pediatrics families.
It is our goal to make high quality services available to all Hyde Park Pediatrics families. Our behavioral health providers meet with patients for brief consultations and short-term, evidence-based therapy. They are a resource for a variety of emotional, behavioral, or academic concerns, and can support referrals to more intensive community-based support as needed.
Our model of practice and your treatment options
It is our goal to make high quality services available to all families at Hyde Park Pediatrics. We serve as a resource for brief consultations for emotional, behavioral, or academic concerns. Following an initial consultation, our BH providers recommend options that may include short term evaluation and treatment at Hyde Park Pediatrics, referral to community resources, or other options. We are unable to see patients for long-term therapy. Patients with very complex socio-emotional needs or persistent active safety concerns are typically better served by behavioral health services in the community. We welcome the opportunity to meet with you to determine whether our services may be a good fit for your child or family. You always have the right to decide to seek help outside of Hyde Park Pediatrics.
What to expect at your first visit
The first visit with your behavioral health clinician will typically be a 30 minute consultation. Please ensure that a parent or legal guardian is present for the visit if the child is under 18 years of age. We will ask about your primary concerns and talk about your goals. With this in mind, we will discuss whether the model of behavioral health services at Hyde Park Pediatrics is a good fit for your family's needs. Our BH providers can meet individually with your child or with a parent present depending on the family’s preference. Some parents prefer to meet with our BH provider individually for their initial visit to discuss their concerns privately. This is particularly helpful with younger children.
Confidentiality
Most everything discussed with a behavioral health provider is confidential. We will not share information about behavioral health visits with anyone outside of the Boston Children's Hospital network without a parent/legal guardian's written permission. There is an important exception to this rule. If we are concerned that your child is at risk of (1) hurting themselves or (2) of hurting someone else; or (3) if we are concerned that someone is abusing your child, the law requires that we share that information to keep your child safe. Youth aged 13-17 have additional privacy privileges. We will not share specific information about the content of our visits with parents or guardians except with the permission of the youth, or in cases in which we are concerned about the youth's safety.
Behavioral health notes in the Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Within the Boston Children's Hospital network, your child's entire care team--including their pediatrician, nurses, and specialty care providers -- do have access to behavioral health notes through our EMR system. The purpose of this information sharing is to enhance care for patients by increasing communication and collaboration among the health care professionals engaged in their care. Families also have access to behavioral health notes. Parents of children up to age 12 and youth aged 13 and older can review their notes in MyChart. We are happy to answer questions about finding and viewing your behavioral health notes. There are some exceptions to the sharing of behavioral health notes within the EMR system. If there is information in the note that would increase risk of harm to the patient, or would violate someone's privacy, we will add extra protections to the note to limit information sharing. We welcome your input on how and when to share such sensitive information.
Confidentiality and virtual visits
In the context of virtual visits, please note that while we strive to maintain a high standard of confidentiality in our procedures, there are additional risks to privacy and confidentiality. These are described in detail when you log into MyChart for a virtual visit.
Costs of service
Behavioral health claims at Hyde Park Pediatrics are processed as a mental health benefit and may be paid differently than your usual medical claims. This could result in copayments and deductibles. Please familiarize yourself with your mental health benefits prior to your first visit. Co-payments are due at the time of service and can be paid through the MyChart app upon logging in for the visit.
Availability and communication
You can reach us between appointments for a phone consultation by calling the main office line: 617-361-1470. You may also send non-urgent messages through MyChart. Please note that documentation of telephone calls and MyChart messages are included in the medical record. If you are concerned about including sensitive behavioral health information in a MyChart message, we recommend calling the office directly.
Canceled appointments
If you cannot make an appointment, please call at least 24 hours in advance. There is a $40 fee for any appointments canceled in less than 24 hours. Patients who are more than 10 minutes late for their appointment will most likely need to reschedule their appointment because most of the appointment time will have passed and it delays other patients scheduled throughout the day. This policy pertains to both Behavioral Health and Medical visits at HPP.
Thank you for your interest in Behavioral Health at Hyde Park Pediatrics!