Just
Functional
Pediatrics!
How do you get to see us?
We prefer to see children who are referred by their Primary Care Provider. We review referrals from Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP), Occupational Therapists (OT) Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Psychometrists, Social Workers and other professionals directly involved in patient care. If the referred from these sources have a Primary Care Provider, we always contact them to ensure that they agree with our involvement. We do not accept parent requests for services. Referrals – regardless of the source - are only accepted after a videoconference interview to ensure that the services being sought are within our scope of practice.
What we do not do is offer ongoing pediatric care or primary care. Practically, most children do not need a primary care pediatrician and continuing pediatric care is best provided by their Family Physician or Nurse Practitioner with our indirect support or input. To quickly respond for those who do and to get them started in what is a complex overwhelmed system, we remain principally a diagnostic service (see our Office Policies document).
How we expect to be treated,
how we will treat you,
and our duty as your child’s care provider:
Kindness & Mutual Respect
Kindness is the most contagious of all human qualities and is achieved through mutual respect, which is the most basic of expectations. We are committed to mutually respectful communication. Abuse of any member of our team will be met with an immediate expulsion from the practice and request to vacate the premises.
Custody Disputes
We decline to be involved in custodial disagreements. We are the child’s care provider. We cannot judge your parenting or that of the other parent in their own home. Custodial decisions are an area of specialisation and beyond our scope of practice. We will routinely ask for Custodial Agreements to be forwarded for our records.
We will not act as the nexus for custodian communication. The custodian present at the appointment assumes responsibility to communicate if the other(s) are unable to attend.
Complaints & Disagreements
If you do not feel that we have demonstrated the same level of respect for you that we seek for ourselves, please let us know. We will do our best to rectify the situation with the understanding that we may not be able to find common ground.
No-show & Cancellation Policies
We try to be respectful of your time. We rarely double- or overbook. We work very hard to be on time for all appointments. Sometimes emergencies occur and we are.
We have a rigid No-Show policy of simply closing referrals for no-shows. There is no fee. To avoid no-shows, we provide frequent reminders and messages of upcoming appointments to encourage at least a 24 h notice for a cancellation.
Child-at-risk Duty to Report
If a child declares mistreatment or if the clinical examination suggests injuries which are inconsistent with the reported mechanism or we have reason to suspect the child is being neglected or mistreated, we are obliged to contact the child protection authorities. Following the duty to report laws, the reporter’s sole responsibility is to inform without prejudice or judgement of the veracity of the claim. We do not assign blame or indict any person. We report concerns to the appropriate authorities who will investigate further.
Our Approach
We are not aggressive in providing diagnostic statements or recommending pharmacological or psychotherapeutic interventions. We believe in using the best tools appropriately at what we judge to be the correct time or occasion. We are very concerned about the inflation in diagnoses and labels, especially around children’s mental health and the prevalence of labelling by third-party responses on questionnaires – none of which in our opinion are diagnostic in isolation.
We appreciate that no intervention is ever completely benign. So, we take care with formulating a diagnosis and therapeutic recommendations.
Working with any care provider must be mutually comfortable. We understand that our approach and scope of practice may not fit. So, an initial videoconference is provided to ensure that we can assist. If we are unable to meet the perceived needs, we will try to suggest alternate providers.
Our Team
Breann Gillespie
Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP) should be seen as Communication Specialists. When assessing children with developmental concern, we believe that a SLP is an essential member of a multidisciplinary group. They are also often the first contact for most children with developmental concerns.
Breann is the Owner-Operator of Oxford Speech Plus. She works with Dr Katibeh and Dr D’Souza to clarify diagnoses, pointing out areas of concern for which her training gives her a unique perspective. More importantly, she is often able to help parents understand their child’s strengths and how best to work on their communication.
Breann joins us about twice a month in London. We in turn go to Ingersoll twice a month to see children either attached to Oxford Speech Plus or those from the area referred to us.
Dr. Tony D'Souza
Dr D’Souza reminds all parents that he is the child’s physician and advocate for their wellbeing.
Dr D’Souza has done many different things in his 35-year career, including being the first Medical Director of McMaster Children’s Hospital’s Emergency Department. His passion is child health. His biggest concerns are the explosions in mental health diagnoses in children, especially with the significant use of terms like ODD, ADHD etc. Providing a significant amount of second and third opinions, his practice has changed greatly with concerns about Autism Spectrum Disorder, Learning Disorders, Development Trauma, Early Developmental Impairment and other explanations for poor child communication. He is just as happy seeing a newborn or a child of any age.
Dr. Parisa Katibeh
Dr Katibeh is a qualified pediatrician from Iran. Canada has a number of physicians who were qualified in their home countries to practice medicine. Her presence in our team is a win-win allowing us to provide better service to the community. She works as a core member of our team and is always introduced as a learner working with Dr D’Souza.
Dr Katibeh works in a mutually respectful model, where she has the support of a licensed pediatrician, who reviews, examines and is responsible for every child seen.
Coco & Remy
We have two dogs in the clinic. Coco is a Bernese-Standard Poodle cross, who is very bright and opinionated. Remy is a West Highland Terrier. They are often very helpful for children and parents to feel at home in the office. If dogs are not your thing, just inform us ideally prior to the first visit and we will exclude them from the areas you will need to frequent.
