​Click the link below to see how Jane uses domino's to teach kids to better understand Social Distancing measures
www.facebook.com/lighthousehealthandeducation/videos/588814411846912/

Updated 15/08/2021

OUR RESPONSE TO NSW COVID19 STAY at HOME ORDERS
and YOUR OPTIONS FOR CONTINUED SERVICE

As a health and education service, we are well aware that it is important that we continue to provide all our clients and students with services without too much disruption. To be able to do this, we all need to work together to ensure that we are not contributing to the spread of COVID19. We hope the information below supports you and your family’s needs at this time and appreciate your understanding as we manage this with a whole community response.

Important information for you to be aware of:
• We are taking reasonable steps towards social distancing to reduce the likelihood that our service and those we work with are unnecessarily impacted by the virus.
• All psychologists and the admin team are on site at Lighthouse Health and Education however, they may work from home if they choose and we will continue to negotiate this for their own health and wellbeing. No staff member will attend the clinic if they are feeling unwell. We will give you as much notice as possible if a change to your appointment is required due to ill health or stay-at-home orders and will make every effort to make alternative arrangements to maintain the continuation of services in non-contact format.
• Please do not attend your appointments if you are feeling unwell, or if anyone in your household is unwell. Please try to give us as much notice as possible if you are unable to attend, as there are alternative arrangements that can be made to maintain the continuation of services in non-contact format.

Changes to our on site services:
• Please do not arrive early for your appointments. The front door will now be locked, the more we can limit the number of people entering and exiting the practice the better. 

• Those entering the centre will be required to adhere to requests for QR code registration, mask and sanitisation compliance upon entry. We will not provide services to those who are non-compliant. It is recommended clients seek telehealth services if they cannot comply with health and safety requests, including those with mask exemptions.

• Think about what you are going to do during your child’s appointment - remaining in the reception space is not an option. Consider bringing a book for the car. 

Telehealth, the alternative option to face-to-face services:
• NDIS participants: You are all able to have telephone or video appointments in place of face-to-face appointments. This is our preference.
• Medicare clients: There have been additional Medicare items made available supporting telephone or video link appointments for ALL Australian's with mental health care plans and chronic disease management plans. 
• I CAN READ students: Wayne will not be providing any lessons while the NSW Stay at Home orders are in place.
• Our telehealth/tele-therapy medium will be Coreplus Teletherapy which meets standards of confidentiality and will require your name, phone number and agreement to tele-therapy terms and conditions each session prior to entering the online waiting room.  Tele-therapy is free for clients to use with practitioners (not including internet costs). Please note: You will require an ipad, PC or smartphone with internet connection, camera and voice recording capabilities. 
• NDIS and Medicare clients also have the option of telephone appointments which do not require a video link or internet support.
• Provisional psychology clients – as your sessions are not funded by Medicare, you are also able to take advantage of telephone or Telehealth sessions, if this is better suited to your situation, with no change to your fees. These will be limited and negotiated with clients personally by phone where possible.
• If you are considering teletherapy, please consider if this is an appropriate medium for your child and/or discuss it with your psychologist. Some children may find it difficult to engage in sessions of this medium, others will find it very effective. Often it is the client that we think it may be least effective for that significant gains are in fact made.
• If you are an NDIS participant or seeing a provisional psychologist, you can use these sessions as parent sessions and/or review meetings without any change to your fees.
• If you are using Medicare for your child, the child does have to be present for teletherapy sessions, however recent budget (March 2021) announcements indicate this may not always be the case in future and we look forward to supporting you should there be any changes.

 Please, do not hesitate to contact our office on 02 6656 4765 if you have any questions about any of the above.