Are you ready to book your appointment

If you require a medic-legal report please ensure that your lawyer is aware that you are seeing a clinician at Depsypher Forensic Mental Health Service. We will need to contact them to obtain a copy of the police facts (allegations) and a criminal record check (usually called a bail report). We will also need to be briefed by your lawyer who will provide us with either a letter or email of instruction.

Often it is the lawyer who refers you to us. In this instance after you have spoken to our intake we will handle the rest, contacting your lawyer directly to obtain all of the required information prior to your session with us.

Call our friendly reception team in business hours on 1800 595259 or email reception@depsypher.com.au after hours. 

If we don’t answer, leave a message with your number. Our intake team will call you back as soon as practicable. If you are hearing impaired or have difficulty on the phone, please email us to organise an appointment.

Our services are more in demand than ever so we recommend booking up to five sessions in advance, if you’d like regular appointments.

Not all of our clinicians offer Medicare or private health insurance rebates. However, if your clinician does offer a rebate then please bring the following to your first session:

• Your GP referral if you have one (you can email this to us if easier)
• Your Medicare Card
• Your Private Health Card (if you intend to use this to claim)

Please note that all fees are to be paid in full at the time of the session. Our reception team will ensure that the rebate is paid into your nominated back account, usually the day after the session.

If you need to cancel or reschedule, please give us 48+ hours notice. Should you wish to cancel or change your appointment, call our reception team on 1800 595259 or email reception@depsypher.com.au as soon as possible  to avoid a cancellation fee. Appointments cancelled with less than 48 hours notice will be subject to our cancellation policy (see below)

Generally it is not possible to contact your clinician directly until you have got to know each other. Whilst you are waiting for your clinician to advise you that you can contact them directly you can contact our reception team on 1800 595259. Please note most of our clinicians have other appointments and may not be able to respond to you quickly. If you have attempted to contact your clinician directly and have not received a response within a couple of hours please contact our reception team. Please note, unless specifically indicated, our clinicians are not generally available out of hours.

Cancellation Policy

Treatment appointments

Our cancellation policy is applied as below

• Cancellation with 48 hours or more notice: no fee*
• Cancellation with 24 – 48 hours notice: 50% of the scheduled fee is payable*
• Cancellation with 12 – 24 hours notice: 80% of the scheduled fee is payable*
• Cancellation with 0 – 12 hours notice: the full scheduled fee is payable*

Medico-legal assessment appointments

If a client fails to attend a medico-legal appointment, or the appointment is cancelled with less than two (2) working days’ notice, half of the scheduled fee is to be paid. 

Where a request for a report is cancelled, after attendance for an assessment, the full fee is non-refundable (if already paid) and payable (if not already paid), if the patient has attended the assessment.

Psychiatrist appointments

Our cancellation policy is applied as below 

• Cancellation with 48 hours or more notice: no fee* 
• Cancellation with 24 – 48 hours’ notice: 70% of the scheduled fee is payable* 
• Cancellation with 0 – 24 hours’ notice: 100% of the scheduled fee is payable* 

*Depsypher Mental Health Services reserves the right to refuse to offer any further treatment sessions and/or require up-front payment of fees, should appointments be cancelled or not attended. Cancellation fees cannot be claimed back from Medicare or private health insurance. 

Try not to be too anxious about your first appointment. You have made the first, and very important, step in getting the right kind of assistance.

After your first appointment is booked by our reception team, you will receive a confirmation email.  It is  important that you read this email before your first session. There should be a link to an Intake Form in this email and we would really appreciate you completing this prior to your session so that your clinician can prepare for the session.

Please check your confirmation email carefully to ensure you know where we are located (Pine Tree Lane, Terrigal). Please see our Find Us page for maps and directions to find the clinic. Please note that if your appointment is outside of office hours the lift will be locked. Our reception team can be contact on 1800 595259 to come down and let you in prior to your appointment. Alternatively you can SMS your clinician directly (the mobile telephone number for your clinician is listed in the confirmation email.

You’ll receive an email and SMS notification for each session. Typically you receive an email when the appointment is made and then another email two days prior to your appointment. You will receive an SMS the day prior to your appointment. 

If you need to change or cancel your appointment then please contact our reception team on 1800 595259 (cancellation fees may apply).

Generally you can reschedule an appointment with 48 hours + notice if needed, however please be aware that it may not be possible to reschedule your appointment to a date or time close to the cancelled appointment. 

Contact our reception team if you require an urgent appointment and we will try our hardest to accomodate you. For urgent mental health treatment please see our Need Help? page

If you can’t get in as soon as you’d like, ask to go on our waiting list. Luckily for us, our practitioners get few cancellations. However, if you ask to go on our waiting list we will contact you if an earlier spot comes available.

If you need any assistance with your appointments, call 1800 595259 or email us at reception@depsypher.com.au. If your need is urgent, we will try our hardest to see you as soon as possible, and sometimes outside of usual clinic hours. In these instances our clinicians may be able to find a way to see you sooner (especially if you are willing to utilise Telehealth).

We understand that this can often be a difficult time for our clients and we understand that sometimes things seem really tough. We also understand that some of our patients do not even want to engage in the assessment or treatment process and feel that it is something that they "must" undertake. Please note that attending our clinic is voluntary and you do not have to engage in any clinical service with us. 

Our staff will treat you with respect and kindness. We see many clients across the lifespan and are skilled at supporting you at times of distress. With this being, said rude and aggressive behaviour towards our staff is considered unacceptable. We will not see clients who are aggressive towards any of our team or who turn up to their session intoxicated by alcohol or any other substance.