Information for Practitioners.

The Diamond Valley Brain Centre offers psychology and specialist neurological consultations by referral from other health care practitioners. This service is available to all health care practitioners including chiropractors, osteopaths, naturopaths, TCM practitioners, and physiotherapists.

Why refer?
When to refer?
Conditions to consider referring.
What happens when you refer?
Referral form for pracitioners (requires Acrobat Reader).
Practitioner's Newsletter

Why refer?

Normally when practitioners find evidence of neurological problems the only option available is referral to a medical neurologist via the patient's GP. Unfortunately this usually means the patient is lost to the practitioner and the patient is channelled down the "medical route" with little regard for alternative/natural therapy approaches.

At the Diamond Valley Brain Centre we recognise that an expert opinion is often needed but that losing patients to the medical system is not desirable. Sometimes patients do need to be referred to a medical neurologist because they have a hard neurological lesion (i.e. tumour, stroke) that needs a medical approach, but thankfully they are in the minority. Part of our role is to identify such patients and direct them accordingly, whilst at the same time identifying those patients whose condition is amenable to non-medical approaches and provide the referring practitioner with realistic treatment recommendations and goals.

To learn even more about when and what to refer sign up to our Free Practitioners Newsletter - click for more info.

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When to consider a referral?

A frequent question is when to consider a referral to us. We would recommend the following criteria:

Specialist neurological consultation:

• If the patient has neurological signs and symptoms.
• They have a diagnosed neurological condition but want an alternative opinion.
• The patient is not responding to care as expected.

Psychological evaluation:

• The presence of "yellow flags" indicating possible psychological overlay.
• Other psychological involvement (eg. Family issues for ADHD children.)

Click here for a list of conditions that may benefit from a functional neurological approach.

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What happens when I refer a patient?

We book the patient in for a consultation. A detailed history is taken including the presenting complaint, family, medical, systems and neurological history. The patient is then normally evaluated with a head to toe neurological, physical and chiropractic/orthopaedic examination, including special tests specific to their condition. On average we would expect to spend 1 to 1.5 hours evaluating the patient and preparing a report for the practitioner. The report will include a synopsis of the history and exam findings, an assessment (diagnosis) and recommendations for treatment or further action.

The patient would then be asked to contact the referring practitioner to book a consultation with them to review the findings. If the patient or practitioner wishes the patient can book a follow up visit where we will discuss the findings with the patient. Some referring practitioners chose to attend; this is of course fine by us as long at the patient consents.

We normally expect the patient to be returned to the care of the referring practitioner. Sometimes this is not possible due to the condition requiring specialist intervention. We will always discuss this with the referring practitioner following the consultation, and even then the long-term aim will be to return the patient to your care.

We hope that you find our service to be a great benefit to your patients and to your practice. Through the incorporation of our services into your repertoire you will find yourself able to offer an effective service to a wider range of patients with the obvious benefits to your practice that this will produce. To find out more just call on 03 9435 2887 and we will be very happy to discuss our services further with you.

Referral form for pracitioners (requires Acrobat Reader).

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