Primary Care Psychiatry is a program that allows children who are experiencing emotional or behavioral health concerns to receive basic psychiatric care and therapy within their medical home. Our program includes short-term (0-12 months) therapy services. A list of services provided can be found below. If you are interested in scheduling your child for therapy you may be referred by one of our providers or self refer if you are a patient at Potomac Pediatrics. 

Please note all mental health services are exclusive to primary care patients of Potomac Pediatrics. Non- patients who are already established with a pediatrics practice outside of Potomac Pediatrics, looking to switch to Potomac Pediatrics to gain access to this service will not be accepted nor referred to our therapists. In addition, our program is only intended for patients who are not currently receiving ongoing therapy elsewhere. If you are currently established with a therapist it is our recommendation that you continue with your current provider. 

Private patient discussions are confidential and protected under the law, they will not be shared with the parent unless your child’s therapist is concerned for the patient’s safety.

At this time there is currently a waitlist for initial appointments. Please contact psychiatry@potomacpediatrics.com to check the current timeline for our waitlist. 

Before and after school availability is exceptionally limited and is only available to established high school aged therapy patients when a spot becomes available! New therapy patients will only be offered an appointment during the day.

If you cannot commit to daytime appointments in our office please refer to our Who We Recommend list and/or check with your insurance carriers website to find a provider with alternate availability.

Age Restriction

At this time we are only accepting children who are 5 years and older. We have limited therapist who see children between 5-7 years old and children in this age group will have a longer wait time to be placed with a therapist.

Administrative Services

• IEP Review and Forms completion
• Student accommodation letters

Therapy Services

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Anger management
• School refusal
• ADHD Coping Strategies
• Behavioral Disorders
• Adjustment Disorders
• Attachment Disorders
• Body Image Distortions
• Eating Disorders
• Challenging Life Transitions
• Bereavement
• Family Counseling

Group Services Available 

• Bullying support groups and/or peer relation support group
• Anxiety support groups
• Depression support groups
• Parents of children w/ anxiety (coming soon)
• Parents of children w/ depression (coming soon)

What to Expect at the First Appointment

Your first appointment will be a fit assessment with one of our therapists. A fit assessment does not guarantee a permanent appointment spot in our program. During this assessment our clinical team will explore more in depth information about your child and family’s needs. The clinician will also assess whether the outpatient program at Potomac pediatrics is able to meet your specific needs, or if a different type of care or placement would be more suitable for your child. 

Financial Information 

We are currently credentialed with the following insurance companies: CareFirst, Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare. Your visit will be subject to specialist copays, deductibles, and/or coinsurance per your individual policy. Practice policies regarding copays and deductible deposits due at the time of service will apply. Please note that we can’t guarantee benefit coverage for primary care psychiatry services and it is the patients’ responsibility to verify if their policy offers mental health benefits. Once claims are processed to your insurance and received back you will receive a statement in your child patient portal account for any additional balances due or your credit card will be refunded any account credit minus any copay, deductibles, or coinsurance that is assigned to patient responsibility. Please be advised that some plans have a specific behavioral health network associated with their benefits. We can’t guarantee that our primary psychiatry provider will be considered in-network. If your claim is processed out of network, you will be responsible for the balance due per your out of network benefits. Patients who do not have mental health benefits will be considered self-pay and payment will be due upon check-in. Therapy Sessions – Appointments that are canceled with less than 48 business hours advanced notice or no showed will be subject to a $125 fee and will be charged to the credit card on file. We only have a limited number of appointments available and need to maximize our efforts to actively help as many of our patients as we can. Should you cancel 3 therapy appointments for any reason we will terminate therapy services in our office and refer you to other providers in the community for continued care. Please be advised that many community resources are not insurance credentialed.

Schedule Appointment 

If you would like to schedule an appointment with one of our therapist you may email us at psychiatry@potomacpediatrics.com or call us at (301) 279-6750. Please note all mental health appointments are scheduled by our Psychiatry Coordinator. Please allow at least 24 business hours for her to return your call. If your child will be on an extended vacation of 2 weeks or more please schedule intake evaluations after they have returned from their trip. We cannot hold weekly appointment times for patients who will not actively be present and available on a consistent basis.