You can either drop us a note using our online form or call/Whatsapp us at 6592 440. We will then get in touch with you to schedule an appointment. Before you arrive at our clinic for your first visit, we will also be sending you two forms for your completion. The first is a pre-registration form, which we use to collect basic information about you, so that we can create a file for you. The next is a consent document, which lists some of the key aspects of our terms of service, for your endorsement.

We do not accept walk in cases for now. However, we can see you in clinic as soon as the next business day.

Our opening hours are 9am to 5:30pm every day except Wednesday and Sunday. We can provide a time chit or a medical certificate to excuse you from your other commitments if necessary, so that you can attend your appointments with us.

If you need to be seen beyond our regular opening hours, please check in with us and we will try to accommodate. Extra charges may apply.

Yes. If you are unable to come to the clinic due to significant mobility or physical difficulties, we can make special arrangements for home-based assessments. Please let us know in advance if you require a home-based assessment, and we will be in touch to find out more. Extra charges may apply.

Yes. We encourage face-to-face consultations as this modality allows us to get to know each other better. However, if there are difficulties for you to come to clinic, do let us know in advance so that we can discuss if teleconsultation would be feasible and make the necessary arrangements.

We adhere to the Ministry of Health (MOH) Guidelines for Teleconsultation, including guidelines for determining which patients are suitable for review via teleconsultation, and those pertaining to the conduct of teleconsultation.

Please bring along a photo ID for identification. If you have been referred by another healthcare provider, and have a referral note, please bring that along as well. If you are presenting for evaluation of a learning-related/academic difficulty (e.g., ADHD), please also bring your school result slips, report books, or other relevant psychometric assessment reports.

For the most part, it feels like a structured chat. You or your loved one will probably start off by sharing what has been troubling you. We will ask you questions to clarify and understand the issues better, as well as questions to know you better. The latter may include questions about your background, your interests and inclinations, as well as lifestyle habits. Sometimes physical examinations and blood or radiological investigations may be required. At the end of the session, we will present our perception of your difficulties, and discuss that as well as the treatment plan.

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specialises in mental illnesses. A (clinical) psychologist is a health professional who possesses an advanced (Master’s or Doctorate) degree in clinical psychology (i.e., the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illnesses and psychological difficulties).

Although the general perception, therefore, is that psychiatrists use medications to manage mental health concerns, while psychologists deliver psychotherapy or talk therapy, this is an oversimplification. There are some psychiatrists who have developed expertise in providing counselling or psychotherapy, and employ these interventions as well where they are deemed more appropriate than medications.

In Singapore, if you are required to provide a formal account of your condition in the form of a diagnosis (e.g., for insurance-related or legal matters), you will usually be asked to see a psychiatrist for a formal diagnosis.

Still not very sure who you should see? Don’t worry. Most of the time you can start your journey with either professional, who will assess and understand the source of your difficulties, advise you about the care you need, and make the appropriate referrals.

There are some conditions that respond better to one mode of treatment more than the other. For example, talk therapy would be very difficult and ineffective in persons with acute psychotic disorders, who are unable to delineate reality from their psychotic experiences. In this case, medications have to be used first to stabilise the psychotic illness before considering if psychotherapy might be helpful. Medications are sometimes also used first in patients who may have difficulties arising primarily from psychological or social stressors, but are experiencing a significant amount of distress. The intent is to relieve the distress so that they would be in the right headspace to engage in psychotherapeutic work. On the other hand, if a person presents for help to improve social skills or time management skills, but otherwise does not experience significant distress or have a psychiatric illness, there would be little role for medications.

Personal preference plays a role in some conditions, for which medications and talk therapy are similarly effective. For these conditions, opting for both can often bring about greater effectiveness compared with just pursuing a single modality of treatment.

Of course! It is important for us that you get timely care and different options for care. Whether this is a situation where you have a future first visit appointment with another psychiatrist but would like to be attended to earlier, or one where you would like a second opinion about your diagnosis or treatment, we would do our best to extend the care you need.

However, in the long term, we would encourage that you follow up with just a single service provider. This is to minimise confusion arising from differences in treatment approaches, which would not be beneficial for you. If you decide to continue following up with another provider, we can provide a written or verbal handover, at your request, to your chosen provider.

Also often referred to as decision-making capacity in Singapore, this is the more explanatory term. Mental capacity is one’s ability to make decisions. It is task-specific: a person who is cognitively impaired may not be able to make a complex decision like selling his property, but could yet retain the capacity to decide about who he wants to live with. It is also time-specific: a person might have been found to lack decision-making capacity a year ago when he was confused in the context of a severe illness, but may have regained that capacity now that he has fully recovered from the illness and confusion.

This is usually because (i) you are required to make a high-stakes decision, and (ii) the government agency/bank/lawyer/doctor has reason to feel concerned/doubtful about your ability to make a reasonable decision. The outcome of the mental capacity assessment would help them decide if it would be in your best interests to allow you to make the high-stakes decision.

Please bring a photo ID for identification. If you have medical records that pertain to any condition that could contribute towards mental impairment or disturbance, please bring those as well.

You should preferably be accompanied by someone who knows you well, and is qualified to comment on things like your usual level of cognitive functioning, ability to manage different kinds of day-to-day activities, sources of income, usual preferences, values, etc.

As mental capacity is task-specific, it would be useful to ask the requesting government agency/bank/doctor/lawyer to specify, in writing preferably, the exact decision(s) you are required to make and the relevant information already conveyed to you. For example, if you have been referred for a mental capacity assessment to determine your ability to decide on a surgical procedure, please ask the referring surgeon to provide, in a memo, details such as the procedure offered and a summary of his/her explanation about the procedure, including the nature of the procedure, benefits and risks of the procedure, and alternatives to the procedure.

Please also bring any documents that could help us verify your circumstances. For example, if you have been referred by a lawyer to determine your mental capacity to make a will, please bring along documents that would help us ascertain the extent of your assets, such as bank statements, proof of ownership, valuation reports, etc.

It begins first with a clinical assessment to ascertain if you are suffering from a mental impairment or disturbance, and the likely underlying cause of the impairment or disturbance. Cognitive screening is usually performed as part of this process, and in situations where findings from the clinical assessment and cognitive screening are equivocal, further cognitive or neuropsychological assessments may be required. The next part of the assessment will focus on the decision(s) for which mental capacity needs to be determined, Questions will be asked to assess the extent to which you remember and have understood information provided about the decision(s), your rationale for your decision, and the coherence and consistency of your conveyed decision(s).

During the assessment, corroborating information will be sought from the family member or caregiver who accompanies you to the assessment.

Depending on the complexity of the issues to be assessed, the assessment may extend beyond a single session.

A LPA, or Lasting Power of Attorney, is a legal document that allows a person, aged 21 years and above and who possesses mental capacity to do so (the “donor”), to make advance plans for when he/she loses mental capacity to make decisions on a range of matters, by naming persons (“donees”) who can make these decisions on his/her behalf.

The role of a psychiatrist is as a Certificate Issuer – the psychiatrist will assess and verify that you possess the mental capacity to make a LPA, and have done so voluntarily.

You can find more information and resources about the LPA at the Office of Public Guardian’s website. Feel free to speak with us if you have further questions about the LPA.

This is another means by which alternate decision-makers are appointed for persons who lack the mental capacity to act or decide for themselves. Deputyship differs from LPA in two key ways. Firstly, a LPA is voluntarily entered into by an individual with intact mental capacity to appoint future alternate decision-makers, whereas deputyship applies for individuals who are already assessed to lack mental capacity to make a LPA. Secondly, the donees in a LPA are nominated by the donor, but deputies are appointed by the court.

You can find more information and resources about deputyship at the Office of Public Guardian’s website. Feel free to speak with us if you have further questions about deputyship.