Dr. Upadhyay will do an initial psychiatric assessment for children and adolescents over two 60 minute appointments spaced out over two weeks. Typically, she will meet with the child/adolescent and the parents together during the first 60 minute appointment to obtain a thorough medical and psychiatric history. Please note that usually medications are not prescribed at the time of the first visit until the entire assessment can be completed.
She will typically meet with the child/adolescent alone during the first part of the second 60 minute appointment and spend the remainder of this appointment time going over the diagnosis and a biopsychosocial treatment plan with both the child/adolescent and parents. If the parents would like to meet with her without the child/adolescent, a brief 30 minute appointment can be arranged between the two 60 minute initial assessment visits, depending on time availability. Please let the front office staff know if you feel that your family may need an additional 30 minute appointment.
Please note that Dr. Upadhyay is not a forensic psychiatrist and does not have any involvement in custody issues. If she is seeing a younger child, Dr. Upadhyay may spend both assessment sessions with the parent and the child to assist the child and parents to be more comfortable during the assessment process. During the assessment process, she may obtain necessary lab work and data from school, hospital and other doctors and therapists that the patient may be seeing to obtain collateral information.