Next steps
Navigating assistance for your child or young person can be stressful and challenging. Our job is to make it simple, personal and efficient so that you can focus on your child and as we come alongside you.
Talking through your concerns with us will help to connect you with the right specialist or assessment for the right outcomes.
How to make a referral
Lane Cove
Phone Consultation – Getting to know your concerns over the phone is the first step to making a referral. Call between 8:00am-6:00pm Monday-Friday.
Referrals can be made directly by
- Parents and Carers
- Paediatric
- General practitioners
- Teachers and learning support staff
- Community Health Service
- Government and Health officials
- Psychologists
- Counsellors
- Allied health staff
Initial assessment
A tailored assessment will be designed to get the most information from your child. We use a combination of formal and informal assessment methods, including standardised assessments, interviews, observations, analyses of language and speech samples, perceptual assessments, and tailored tests to produce a holistic picture of a client’s communicative strengths and weaknesses across a range of environments.
We assess children to:
- evaluate whether they have a language, speech, literacy, stuttering or other disorder and, if so,
- recommend how best to treat or manage it.
To assess a client properly, we need to identify any problem and to understand how it affects the client’s participation in his or her real world activities, e.g. at home, pre-school, school or work. To save clients time (and money), we ask new clients to fill in a detailed questionnaire before their first assessment session to give us enough information to plan appropriate assessments depending on a client’s needs.
Next Steps:
- Hearing Check. All clients who are being referred to us for speech or/and language concerns will be recommended to have a hearing check that is up to date.
- Observation of the difficulty (home / preschool) as a screening assessment to see if we need further assessment.
- Liaison with other support people in the child’s environments such as day care or preschool teachers.
- Full speech and/or language assessment.
Funding resources
Sydney Therapy & Co therapists are all registered with Medicare and Major Health Insurance Providers.
Rebates
Private Health Fund Rebates
Partial rebates may be available for assessment and treatment sessions. Please contact your own provider to find out the rebate information cover. Note that the rebate you receive will depend on your current level and type of insurance coverage.
You may not claim a Medicare rebate and a private health insurance rebate for the same service. You must choose which rebate they are going to claim for a service.
Medicare provider service covered
Sydney Therapy & Co is registered with Medicare (under the Allied Health Initiative) to provide speech pathology services to those who meet the Medicare requirements. In certain cases Medicare offers through Medicare plans, which you can consult your local GP.
Medicare Items for Complex and Chronic Conditions Individuals may be eligible for rebates under the Medicare Items for Complex and Chronic Conditions.
If you are unsure as to you (or your child’s) eligibility please discuss with your GP. Referral process The GP will prepare a GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangements and make the referral to the speech pathologist using a CDM referral form.
The speech pathologist must be registered with Medicare. (If the speech pathologist is registered with Medicare they will have a provider number.) The GP nominates the number of sessions up to a maximum of 5 per calendar year. The current rebate is $52.95. (August 2015). The five sessions are per client, not five sessions per allied health professional, and may be with a number of allied health professionals (e.g., three with a speech pathologist and two with an occupational therapist).
Fees
Fees vary depending on the nature of the assessment and duration of treatment sessions. Please feel free to contact the clinic to request the current fee schedule.