MediMental Care is a highly specialized and significantly enhanced form of mental health care that is biomedically, psychologically, and forensically informed. MediMental Care is entirely focused on the practice of illness traumatology (which includes medical traumatology) and its associated field of forensic traumatology. Both fields have, for many years, been well recognized clinical disciplines of care with certifying professional bodies. Our staff providers are federally registered, doctoral healthcare professionals. We are treating and testifying providers engaged in the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of Traumatic Stress Injury (TSI), including post-traumatic stress disorder and its related conditions precipitated by Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other catastrophic events.

We also have over 30 years of accumulated expertise in presenting forensic evaluations and sworn testimony when called upon to do in accordance with court orders, legal statutes, or a patient’s request. Our patients are from all walks of life and have typically sustained:

• Vehicular crashes
• Brain injuries
• Gunshot wounds
• Hazardous materials and poison gas exposures
• Sexual assaults
• Critical burn injuries
• Building, bridge, and structural collapses
• Explosions
• Human caused disasters
• Other tortious occurrences arising from a defendant’s intentional or negligent conduct

Standard mental health care, (often referred to as “talk therapy”) is generally concerned with assisting individuals in their quest for intra-personal self-actualization, emotional or behavioral adjustment, and personal problem solving. By contrast, MediMental Care is concerned with traumatic stress as an actual bio-neuro-pathophysiological injury to the brain, the body, and the central nervous system, resulting from traumatic occurrences like those listed above. Since our providers are also doctoral level counseling professionals, we can address personal mental health issues as well, such as depression, anxiety and adjustment disorders arising from TSIs.

No, they are distinct conditions. TBI, by definition, requires a concussive blow to the head. TSI, on the other hand, is a much broader classification of injury – one which affects a very large segment of the population at large, but which often goes undiscovered, undiagnosed, and unclaimed.  Certainly, TSI can and does occur in individuals with head injuries and is statistically prone to overlap with TBI, because both disorders originate in traumatic events and therefore have many common symptoms. TBI is a clinical predictor of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Conversely, the co-occurrence of PTSD with TBI may increase the likelihood that concussive injury will become chronic. But unlike TBI, a Traumatic Stress Injury inflicts structural and functional brain injury by neuro-chemical means, rather than concussive means. As a result, a patient can sustain a serious TSI even if one has not experienced a concussive injury.

TSI is not only a potentially severe injury, but also leads to a large array of downstream illnesses (medical sequelae) which can endanger patient health and may even precipitate fatality. These include cardiovascular illness and disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, severe cognitive damage, Parkinsonism, and many others. Because the legal community is still not adequately aware of current developments in traumatology, we believe that millions of traumatic stress injuries a year remain undiscovered, undiagnosed, and untreated.  Because TBI and TSI are separate and distinct injuries, plans of care to address TSI are only rarely included in TBI treatment.  Injuries arising from traumatic stress, should be separately and specifically evaluated and diagnosed by professionals qualified in that field, using evaluation, testing, and imaging protocols that are specifically adapted for use in traumatized patients. The potentially devastating damages which are associated with traumatic stress injury should never be overlooked, ignored, or omitted from a patient’s plan of care.

MediMental Care does embrace core elements of classical mental health care, but it enhances such care in ways which reflect the bio-neuro-physiological diagnostic criteria of traumatic stress-related disorders which are set forth in both the ICD-10 and DSM-5. Despite the explicit inclusion of these factors in the applicable diagnostic codifications, we find that the bio-neuro-physiological elements of traumatic stress related disorders are often completely overlooked, not only by practitioners in the mental health fields of psychology and counseling, but also by providers in the medical field of neurology. MediMental Care exists to rectify these omissions in evaluation, diagnosis, and care.

Clinical methodology that is objective, not just subjective:

MMC recognizes and approaches TSI for what it truly is: a bona fide physical injury.  We therefore approach it through objective, as well as subjective, diagnostic means which show that traumatic stress injuries are demonstrable, measurable, and even imageable. The use of objective approaches lends significant validity and credibility to our findings. The patient’s condition is approached through the lens of current science and is no longer stereotyped as something “imaginary” that is ““all in patient’s head.” We utilize a 22-point proprietary protocol of assessment and evaluation which may include some or all of the following:

• Metabolic monitoring
• Biological laboratory testing
• Neurological laboratory testing
• Highly advanced single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT imaging)
• Computerized cognitive testing
• Bio-nutritionally based intervention
• Advanced brain therapies, with scientifically demonstrated efficacy

Proactive, intensive dedication of time to patient care:

MMC offers advanced trauma-specific psychotherapy, testing, and psychoeducation. We proactively schedule patients for frequent follow-up, ensuring consistent progress. Our patient sessions are typically an hour in length and can be conducted in both English and Spanish. We also systematically review patient files weekly, and proactively advance the progress of patients’ care and management in between therapeutic sessions. We develop a close and abiding relationship of trust with the patients we serve.  

Ongoing clinical assessment and case management:

Our personnel have 22 years of cumulative training in initial and ongoing clinical assessment and case management, which ensures that we are alert to the appearance of problems which other clinicians and physicians frequently miss. We maintain access to a team of eminent physicians with whom we may consult and review our clinical findings.  And whenever it is needed, we initiate the co-intervention of qualified provides in other disciplines to participate with us in team approaches to illness and injury.  As a result, MediMental Care providers can bring changes in the patient’s condition to the attention of the appropriate medical practitioner without delay.  Physicians trust and value MediMental Care clinicians as highly trained and extremely knowledgeable specialist providers. We are the well-qualified “second set” of eyes, ears, and hands who frequently detect the signs and symptoms of traumatic stress injury which would otherwise be overlooked. It’s why we become valued peer members of the interdisciplinary healthcare team in every case we handle.

An initial Clinical Service Deposit is charged when a new treatment file is opened. Services are billed against this deposit until it is exhausted, at which time fees continue to be billed by the hour. We maintain a practice-specific chargemaster of over 125 reasonable and necessary services offered to our patients. Clinical Service Deposits, as well as subsequent or additional costs of care, may be deferrable under either a (1) Letter of Protection or (2) non-recourse medical funding agreement.  Hourly rates range from $350 to $1200 per hour, depending upon services provided.  Remittances are accepted by check, electronic funds transfer, and credit card.

MediMental Care patients come to our practice from all walks of life, having suffered a wide variety of traumatic events. Some will require treatment services only, while others require full scale diagnostics assessment, evaluation, clinical reporting and sworn testimony concerning their conditions. Patients personally register online through the easy-to-access portal on our website at www.medimentalcare.com. There, they fill out our New Patient Intake Information form (assistance from a legal representative is permitted when the patient’s condition requires it) and submit the form online. We do the rest. Alternatively, we act on referrals from all types of clinical providers, who may contact us by phone or email to request a MediMental Care Provider Referral Form. This form takes approximately 2 minutes to complete; thereafter we will contact the patient and gather the necessary intake information.