Parental Conflict

Our office strives to serve every family, whether intact or not, professionally and courteously. In our experience, however, this becomes challenging when parents are in conflict. For such families, we have adopted protocols which we believe help to alleviate tension, reduce communication issues, and provide for a safe, healthy environment for your child’s treatment. If this applies to your situation, we ask that you make every effort to strictly adhere to our protocols so that we are better able to serve you and your child. Of course, failure to maintain a professional relationship with our staff or disruptive behavior while in the office will result in a discontinuance of services.

Office Forms

When you schedule an appointment for your child with our office, you will be asked to complete a series of forms, including our Agreement for Professional Services and Credit Card Authorization. We are happy to provide a duplicate set of forms to another parent or guardian upon request. However, before either parent may schedule an appointment, the scheduling parent must have on file a completed Agreement for Professional Services and Credit Card Authorization, even if the “other parent” has already completed these forms.

Payment

Payment is due when services are rendered. Our office’s policies, and your financial obligations, are outlined in the Agreement for Professional Services. Many parents have shared financial responsibility for uncovered medical expenses pursuant to a court order. Please be advised that your court order is your business, not ours, and we will not enforce your court order. We will collect payment in full from the parent who schedules the appointment. It will be up to that parent to collect from the other. If the person making the appointment arranges for another party (including the other parent) to call in payment before the treatment session, we will accept the payment and apply it to the account.

Scheduling

Parents are always welcome to attend appointments. If there is significant conflict between the parents, the non-scheduling parent may be requested to participate by phone, at our discretion. If, however, there is an order of protection in place, we will, upon request, alternate scheduling so that each parent may physically attend treatment sessions. Dr. Duncan may also request that you alternate scheduling to ensure active participation of both parents. As noted above, the scheduling party will be financially responsible for the sessions they schedule.

Courtesy Appointment Reminders

Upon request, we will provide you with the date and time of your appointment. However, we will only call and remind the scheduling parent. If you are unable to attend an appointment with your child, you can call in at the end of the session to determine when their next appointment will be scheduled. It is not our responsibility to facilitate communication between parents regarding appointments. If you have been ordered by a court to notify the other parent of medical appointments, this is your job and not ours.