Your Visit
How to plan for your clinic visit
When your referral is accepted, you will receive a letter in the mail letting you know. As part of this letter, there will be information about how to sign up via Zoom to attend our education session about functional movement disorder. Please go to the link or use the QR code to sign up for one of the dates that works with your schedule. This session will provide an introduction to our clinic, and introduction to FND with some initial strategies to try for improving symptoms.
Once your clinic visit is scheduled, you will receive another letter confirming this date. You will also receive an email with a link to complete our intake form. This form gives us an overview of the types of symptoms you are experiencing, and your health history. Please complete this before your visit with us.
While awaiting your appointment, try out some rehabilitation strategies that can be found in the Resources Section. (include link) It is also important to think about goals for yourself, which are specific tasks that are currently impacted by FND symptoms that would be meaningful to work towards. These goals should be personal and specific, and ideally things that you enjoy doing! Some examples could be going for a walk with a pet around the block, or watching a sports game with your family. It is also useful to think about if there are certain triggers for your symptoms.
What to expect at your clinic visit
Your first clinic visit will be scheduled for 1.5 hours and sometimes goes a bit over time. Please arrive at the clinic around 15 minutes early in order to find parking, check in with the receptionist and ensure we have your current contact and other information. Please do not be late for your clinic visit out of consideration for other patients attending the same clinic that day. We recommend that you bring a family member or friend who knows you well, as it will be important for them to also understand what is happening with your health.
Our nurse will bring you into our clinic room. Your medication list will be reviewed and vital signs may be taken. She will also discuss with you whether you are comfortable having your neurological examination videotaped for documentation purposes.
You will then be seen by the movement disorders neurologist (Dr. Gilmour), our nurse, and may also be seen by a neuropsychiatrist (Dr. Williams or Dr. Howlett). Given that we are teaching site, we also often have medical learners with us. All the team members attending the visit will be together with you in the clinic room, so that we are all able to hear your story without you needing to repeat, and so we can work collaboratively with you. During this visit, we will ask you about your symptoms and how they impact your daily life. We will go through your story about how they started and how they have changed over time. We will also spend some time hearing about how these symptoms have impacted your mental health, as this is a very common experience and important for us to understand when developing a treatment plan together.
We will then spend some time sharing with you our thoughts about your diagnosis of FND, and discuss next steps in improving symptoms. Importantly, we will tailor our recommendations to your individual circumstances, so this will vary from person to person. We may also discuss strategies to improve sleep, mental health, pain and other symptoms. There will be an opportunity to answer any questions you may have.
After the visit, our team will send letters to your referring physician (likely your neurologist or neuropsychiatrist), and family doctor. These doctors are important parts of your health care team, and we will keep them informed about your visits with us.
After the first clinic visit
We will give you many recommendations during your visit, and will right these down for you to refer back to. We will also provide you with information to register to attend a 2 part education session over Zoom, which occurs on a Tuesday and Thursday every month. You only need to attend this on one occasion, but please make sure to sign up for both the Tuesday and Thursday.
Follow-up clinic visits
Not everyone will require a follow-up visit, but we will discuss this with you during your initial visit. Follow-up visits will typically be much shorter than your first visit, usually about 30 minutes. As with your first visit, you will be notified of the date and time by letter. Our nurse will bring you into the clinic room to check in on how you are doing, ensure our medication list is up to date, and ask about any new concerns. The follow-up visit will be with Dr. Gilmour only (neurologist).
Clinic Library
We are collecting books relevant to FND in our clinic library. If you are interested in borrowing a book, please discuss with our nurse, Kate. Additionally, if you have any recommendations for books that you have found helpful, please let us know! We are always looking to expand our offerings.
Forms
We hope that you will be able to complete our intake form ahead of your first visit from the link in your email. If you have trouble with this, you can instead attend your first visit early, to leave time to complete this form in the waiting room. You may also be asked to complete forms during the visit.