New patients
Your care begins with a comprehensive evaluation to get a clear understanding of what you are seeking, to understand your situation, and to settle on a shared plan of action.
Because we are an academic medical center, you may meet with a psychiatric resident or medical student. Assessments and focused interventions are provided by our multi-disciplinary team of licensed clinical social workers, psychologists, medical students, psychiatric residents, and staff psychiatrists.
Note: We recommend that you contact your health insurance company before calling to confirm your coverage.
Before your first appointment
To make our initial evaluations more efficient and effective, we will ask you for some information before the appointment. Also at the time of the visit, we may ask you to fill out a questionnaire so we can track your progress over time. This questionnaire can be done on a small tablet computer in the office or from your own computer through myDH.
It would also be helpful to bring a list of your medications and their dosage, or the medications themselves, to the first visit.
During the first appointment
You will meet with your clinician in a private room where he or she will provide you with some information about what will be discussed in the appointment, information about confidentiality, and seek to understand your history.
These are the topics that are typically covered in an initial evaluation:
- Reason for coming to the appointment
- History of current symptoms or difficulties
- Contributing factors
- Past psychiatric history
- General medical history
- Current medications
- Medication allergies
- Trauma history
- Experience with nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, and drugs
- Social history such as living situation, work or school, family and friendships, education history
The clinician will then work with you to put it all together and come up with a plan for the next steps. Next steps often include gathering more history, consulting with others, sharing the pros and cons of treatment options, and beginning treatment, if that treatment makes sense to both of you. Sometimes you and the evaluating clinician will conclude that the care you need is offered outside of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Clinics. If this is the case, our clinic staff will assist you in connecting with that source of care.
Returning patients
If you are a returning patient, you may use myDH to communicate securely with your providers, request or change appointments, review your medical record, and more.
Log in or learn more about myDH
For referring physicians
To refer a patient for consultation in the Department of Psychiatry, contact our Physician Connection Center. You also may contact a Department of Psychiatry program or location directly.