Best Telemental Help, LLC's Communications Policy
Contacting Your Therapist
When you need to contact your therapist for any reason, these are the most effective ways to get in touch in a reasonable amount of time:
By phone (620-931-8869). You may leave a message on the confidential voicemail.
By secure text message (see below for details.)
By secure email (see below for details.)
By secure messaging in Therapy Portal.
- If you wish to communicate with your therapist by normal email or text message, please inquire about the potential confidentiality risks of doing so and complete the Consent For Non-Secure Communications form.
Best Telemental Help, LLC subscribes to the following services that can allow them to communicate more privately through the use of encryption and other privacy technologies. None of them will cost you money, but each requires some setup before they can be used. Please ask if you would like to use any of these services:
Secure text messaging.
Encrypted email.
A secure patient portal (Therapy Portal) where you can exchange private messages with your therapist via a secured website.
If you need to send a file, such as a PDF or other digital document, these are the most effective and secure ways:
Secure patient portal.
Encrypted email.
Secure fax; 1-855-514-2738.
Please refrain from contacting your therapist using social media messaging systems such as Facebook Messenger. These methods have very poor security, if any, and your therapist is not prepared to watch them closely for important messages from patients. Neither Best Telemental Help, LLC nor your therapist will communicate with you using such social media messaging systems or similar video communication applications that are public facing. If you communicate with Best Telemental Help, LLC or your therapist via a social media messaging system, they will reach out to you in a different, secure manner.
It is important that you and your therapist are able to communicate and also keep the confidential space that is vital to therapy. Please speak with your therapist about any concerns you have regarding Best Telemental Help, LLC's preferred communication methods.
Response Time
Your therapist may not be able to respond to your messages and calls immediately. For messages through voicemail, email, or the patient portal, you can expect a response within 24 hours (weekends and holidays are excluded from this time frame). Your therapist may reply more quickly than that, but please be aware this will not always be possible.
There may also be times when your therapist is unable to receive or respond to messages, such as when out of cellular range or out of town.
Emergency Contact
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please call:
National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline; 988 (call or text).
If you need to contact your therapist about an emergency, the best method is:
By phone (620-931-8869).
If you cannot reach your therapist by phone, please leave a voicemail and then follow up with a secure text message.
Please note that SMS (normal phone text messages) are not designed for emergency contact. SMS text messages occasionally get delayed and on rare occasions may be lost. Please refrain from using SMS as your sole method of communicating with your therapist in emergencies.
Disclosure Regarding Third-Party Access to Communications
Please know that if you and your therapist use electronic communications methods, such as email, texting, online video, and possibly others, there are various technicians and administrators who maintain these services and may have access to the content of those communications..
Of special consideration are work email addresses. If you use your work email to communicate with your therapist, your employer may have access to those communications. There may be similar issues involved in school email or other email accounts associated with organizations that you are affiliated with. Additionally, people with access to your computer, mobile phone, and/or other devices may also have access to your email and/or text messages. Please take a moment to contemplate the risks involved if any of these persons were to access the messages you and your therapist exchange with each other.
If you choose to communicate with Best Telemental Help, LLC through unsecure email or text messaging please complete and sign the request form.