Do you or your client need psychological support?
Dokotela provides psychological support services for NDIS clients whose mental health is impacting their disability. We recognise that everyone has different needs, and our team of experts create individual programmes to suit the clients’ needs.
Our team can help to identify coping strategies and capabilities for participants to become more confident in social situations. We understand that facing life’s challenges can be difficult and we can assist clients in building their capacity to live a more fulfilling and independent life.
Dokotela provides a co-ordination of care by bridging the gap between healthcare, psychological and social services.
How can our team help you?
The first step is to understand the client’s mental health needs – our team can then support them to achieve their recovery goals in several ways:
Psychological Support
Our team have extensive training in psychological therapies to help participants build resilience, manage stress and cope during crisis and transition periods. Techniques used include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), behavioural support (BSP), dialectic behaviour therapy (DBT) and acceptance commitment therapy (ACT).
Relationships
Coaching to help identify the relationships that matter and how to build stronger bonds with the important people in life. Our team can also support engagement with the community and building a social network.
Pursuing purpose
Helping to find a passion or role that builds on the client's strengths and is tailored for their abilities. A purposeful life is a happy life.
Physical health
Working alongside clients and their GPs understand physical health and how to improve it. Supporting to reach physical health goals – including engaging with a dietician and exercise motivation.
Medication
Supporting clients to manage their medication. Discussing side effects with clients and looking out for side-effects of concern. Supporting changes to medication in partnership with doctors. Motivating clients to adhere to medication plans by focusing on the recovery potential.
Additional support
Behaviour support planning to provide the tools and strategies necessary to support a person with a psychosocial disability to improve their quality of life.
How to book
Step 1:
Complete the online service agreement & participant consent form.
(Please note a copy of the clients NDIS plan is required).
Step 2:
Depending on the presenting issues, your client will be matched accordingly with a practitioner who will give your them the best possible assistance in achieving their recovery goals.
Step 3:
A member from our friendly operations team will contact you or your client to book in with the matched practitioner.
FAQ
Although Dokotela operates mainly through a telehealth video platform, we do have a couple of practitioners located in the South West Sydney region. This means that face to face services, although limited, are a possibility for those of our clients located in Sydney.
Dokotela delivers psychological support services under the following NDIS categories:
- Assistance with Daily Life (Core supports)
- Improved Relationships (Capacity Building)
- Improved Daily Living Skills (Capacity Building)
- Finding and Keeping a Job (Capacity Building)
In short, no.
The NDIA funds psychosocial recovery supports (such as psychology) that focus on a person’s functional ability, including the abilities that enable participants to undertake activities of daily living and participate in the community and in social and economic life.
- A Psychologist is identified within the NDIS scheme as “an allied health professional” who specialises in psychology. Their role mainly involves providing therapy and counselling to help people better manage their psychosocial conditions.
The NDIA do not fund or replace mental health services (such as psychiatric care) provided through the Australian health system. The health system is seen as a more appropriate funding body for these supports.
- A Psychiatrist is defined as a medical professional that specialises in the “diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses”. As they are trained medical practitioners, the support they provide is seen as similar to that of a doctor or specialist. For this reason, they are not considered allied health professionals.
Psychologists primarily rely on talk or behavioural therapy to support their clients whereas treatments by Psychiatrists often involve the prescription of medication. It is this specific contrast that determines the difference between whether the service may be claimable from the NDIS.
Dokotela’s aim is to make telehealth hassle-free. We take care of all the administration so that you can focus on providing high-quality care to your patients.
This includes:
- Setting up a secure telehealth virtual room
- Onboarding/marketing to GPs Bookings and calendar management
- Reception service (rebooking, sending treatment plans/correspondence to GPs etc)
- Billing
We hold your hand through the whole process so you can just focus on providing high-quality clinical care.
We currently provide over 1,000 consultations per month. We are a group of 35 Specialists- most are part-time a few work full-time.
Collaborative Care Model
Dokotela is different from most telehealth platforms because of the model that we always work collaboratively with GP’s in managing their patients.
Practically, we do this by always trying to arrange appointments at the GP medical practice and requesting every patient to have time discussing the treatment plan with the Specialist, GP, and carers. We also request the GP to write the prescriptions to engage the GP more closely in the treatment of their patient.
We provide educational input, diagnostic clarification, suggestions regarding medication and possible side-effects and recommend appropriate e-health psychological services. We also ask about local psychosocial services with which the patient can engage.
- We work as a team, we often refer patients for 2nd opinions within our team of Specialists
- We manage complaints on your behalf by having an assigned complaints officer who will contact the patient and ask how best to resolve the dissatisfaction, often by offering a 2nd opinion. Most complaints relate to miscommunications that can usually be easily resolved
- We have a Dokotela Whatsapp group for our Specialists to communicate their questions and concerns. We are all very supportive and offer advice and assistance to this group
Payment for services will be received by Dokotela so we can confirm all your appointments have been paid and there are no outstanding debtors. Each Monday you will receive a statement of payment and funds will be deposited into your account for the week prior.
Please ensure you provide MBS items immediately following each appointment to avoid payments being delayed. When you start with Dokotela you will be required to complete a Medicare form for payment details, this should be sent to us at least 10 business days before you start consulting to avoid your first payment being delayed. The principal cost in telehealth is patient non-attendance.
Dokotela operations staff work very hard to keep this to a minimum, we are constantly refining our processes. If 50% of your patients don’t attend then effectively the Specialist is paying a 50% fee! We make sure that doesn’t’ happen to our Specialsits. The quality of our operations team saves you a large amount of time and money.
There is an out-of-pocket fee associated with all Dokotela appointments. Patients will be required to pay the appointment fee and we will then process the Medicare rebate on their behalf.
If a patient requests a service separate from their treatment (reports, letters, forms etc.) it is at your discretion what you would like to charge the patient (we can let you know what other Specialists charge if helpful).
If a patient wants to have a consult from home for a particular reason we will ensure the patient is appropriate for a home appointment.
If you see a patient who is inappropriate for management via video conference you can speak to the GP and tell him/her that this is the case – this is your clinical decision.
You can discuss concerns with other Specialists on the WhatsApp group at any time (or call our Medical Director).
- You can specify what types of work you will/won’t do
- All practitioners are required to consult with Dokotela a minimum of 4 hours per week. This is to cover the cost of the subscriptions required to be on the platform.
- You can work within your scope of practice, although by its nature telehealth tends to stretch the clinical problems that you will encounter.
- For example, if you are not comfortable prescribing Psychostimulants we will make a note of this and not send you these patients
Dokotela is an Australian owned and operated company making specialist care more accessible by connecting patients across Australia with specialist doctors and clinicians through a secure video-conferencing platform. Dokotela has Psychiatrists (Adult, Child and Adolescent), Geriatricians, Psychologists and Dieticians available.
Telehealth is a virtual consultation that is completed over a video platform such as Zoom. Appointments are performed from the referring doctor/GP clinic. It is not a phone call, the Specialist must be able to both see and hear you for a consultation.
There is an out-of-pocket fee associated with all Dokotela appointments. You will be
required to pay the appointment fee and we will then process the Medicare rebate on your behalf.
Please contact our team on (02) 8003 7668 to enquire regarding the out of pocket costs.
At Dokotela, we encourage collaborative care with a referring GP. This is integral to ensure that GPs are aware of patients needs and medications and are able to assist the patient with follow up questions or concerns. It is also important to be located at a general practitioner clinic as it is a safe space for a psychiatry consultation to take place, and GPs are present should any issues arise.
General waiting times for an appointment is 2-6 weeks, subject to your availability. If you are flexible with the times you are available, we can get you seen quickly. We can also place patients on a cancellation list if you would like an earlier appointment. Please note while we endeavour to accommodate urgent appointments, we are not an emergency service.
If you do require urgent care, please see your general practitioner or go to the emergency department at your local hospital.
Your general practitioner clinic can book an appointment on your behalf, provided you have communicated your availability, alternatively you can call Dokotela. You must have a valid referral that has already been sent to Dokotela to book an appointment.
We require:
- A valid referral
- Medicare card
- Debit or credit card to secure your appointment
- Up to date contact information
We require a debit or credit card to secure your appointment. Our cancelation policy requires 48 hours notice if you would like to cancel or change your appointment. These appointments are difficult to fill without you providing enough notice, so there is a fee of $110 if you do not give us 48 hours notice of a change/cancellation or you fail to show up for your appointment.
Patient’s must speak with their specialist at the time of appointment, generally the specialist will recommend that your GP write a script including repeats. If your specialist is writing the script , it is the patient’s responsibility to ensure they book a follow up appointment before their medication runs outs. We cannot facilitate urgent appointments for patients if their script has run out.
Dokotela must be able to contact you to confirm an appointment. If we need further information we will call you and leave a voicemail or send a text. If we do not need additional information from you, we will ask you to confirm by replying to our SMS reminders.
Some of our specialists are happy to provide reports however there are associated costs for a report to be performed. Here are the reports that some of our doctors can perform:
- Driver’s license
- Firearms license
- Court/legal documents
- Workers Compensation
Please notify our friendly team if you wish to a specialist who can provide these reports. We will speak with a specialist and inform you of the cost of the report.
Budget Calculator
To determine how many sessions you would like to have with one of our practitioners please see the budget calculator tool below:
https://www.ndis.gov.au/participants/plan-implementation-directory/budget-calculators
Please note Dokotela charges under the following categories;
- Assistance with Daily Life (Core supports)
- Improved Relationships (Capacity Building)
- Improved Daily Living Skills (Capacity Building)
- Finding and Keeping a Job (Capacity Building)
See full breakdown of prices here.
Questions? Please send all queries to [email protected]
