Are therapy appts. "essential" medical procedures?

[mylunareclipse]

I am curious how your therapists or psychiatrists are handling all the closures due to covid-19.
In theory you should be allowed to go all all essential medical procedures and outpatient services remain open in most places.
Is weekly therapy considered essential under these circumstances?

 

[Mee]

My therapist is now handling appointments by telephone/ internet call.

 

[Ronin]

The way I read it:

Essential = Life saving.
If it's not needed immediately to preserve life?
It's not essential.

So: About to jump a bridge suicidal person?
Essential.
Regular depressed suicidal person?
Non essential, wait it out.

So to your Q:
No. Not essential. Unless you are acute suicide risk.
Or, rephrase that...
Unless you are in imminent danger to life, regardless causes.

My T? Phone calls.
How do I handle T?
Bugger off, I'm fine, let me help you with more panicked ppl & ppl who don't know what to do. ;)

That and not arguing with her about health reminders / other to the best of my ability, and correct reporting health state instead of half truthing I do at her usual.

 

[Sideways]

The very best person to answer this in your context? Would be your doctor's office. Give them a call, find out how appointments are going to work. Put your mind at ease.

The extent of the emergency is fluctuating daily, and vastly different in one place to the next. Add your own particular circumstances to the mix, and it gets even murkier.

Give your doctor a call. You won't be the first patient enquiring.

 

[mylunareclipse]

I had to end my therapy sessions three weeks ago due to moving I was just wondering how it is being handled.
ie. if dermatology offices are open, why shouldn't therapists see patients.
but then again everything is fluid and changing. seems like a lot of outpatient work is being cut in general as well.

 

[Ronin]

The nature of the work.

Dermatology deals with potentially spreading diseases & overlaps with hella lot virus containment work.

Therapy doesn't have that line of duty usually.

 

[mylunareclipse]

I guess the lucky thing about therapy is that it can indeed be done on the phone or online unlike some other sectors of medicine, so maybe this also makes it easier to push it into virtual vs. in person mode.

 

[Rumors]

I'm not going because I have asthma and am at higher risk. I don't want to take the chance right now. I'm sure my therapist would do a phone call but I really don't want to do that right now. I think we are all dealing with coronavirus anxiety for the most part. I will be glad when things return to normal. I am nervous.

 

[Mach123]

Yes and no lol. If your doctor writes a note and says it is, it is. The rest is opinion and even the doctors opinion is that but it’s the law.

My therapists office closed. She said we could talk on the phone. Right now for me It's way way down the list in terms of priority and I probably wouldn't go if she was going to be there.

 

[Eagle3]

My therapist's office is still open, but they won't let you in if you're showing ANY symptoms of anything communicable, and meet you at the door with hand sanitizer. They have an option available for phone/video sessions if requested, but right now they're staying open. This is to help mitigate the extra stress of forced social isolation, since most of us only GET interaction from our therapists. While neither my T nor I are horribly concerned about the virus, both of us individually and our family members are in the "high risk" category, so we're taking precautions without getting nuts about it. I joked that if he needed to go to video sessions, I promised to wear pants....

 

[somerandomguy]

My T's office requested that if you've been exposed or been around anyone who has been exposed, that you use Skype or Hangouts or Facetime instead. Of course, the problem is that you probably don't know if you've been exposed anyway.

Since we're self-isolating, I decided to just ask T if I can use Hangouts for the next appointment .... but of course that won't work with EMDR.

 

[osiris]

Since we're self-isolating, I decided to just ask T if I can use Hangouts for the next appointment .... but of course that won't work with EMDR.

My appt this week was supposed to be EMDR and can’t do it online either :(