Alessi Psychiatry and Life Center

Alessi Psychiatry and Life Center has clinicians with substantial knowledge and experience base in the evolution of psychiatric conceptual models of conditions and interventions that span 40 years.

This is most evident by the involvement of Dr. Norman Alessi who is an academic in child and adolescent psychiatry with 225 publications and presentations.

Further, in 1978, he was the first psychiatrist to ever administer an antidepressant to a child at the children’s psychiatric hospital at the University of Michigan.

He also identified the existence of treatment-resistant depression in children in the early 1980s and has published much about comorbidities and polymorbidities in mental conditions and treatments in children and adolescents since the early 1980s.

Our Center is only one of two such programs in the state of Michigan that offers psychiatry infusions, and the only one in which a dual board-certified psychiatrist in child and adolescent and general psychiatry is involved.

It is also one of the only clinics or programs that offers a comprehensive approach by recognizing the significance of psychiatric conditions, not only the presentation of mental conditions, but also in attempting to characterize its functional impact.

The center offers functional interventions to improve overall executive functioning, daily life skills, and life functional skills.

Contact the center via phone at 734-428-3983, and you will be directed to our screening intake specialist who will review your case and go over significant issues with you. This may include questions like are we the best clinic for you? can you pay for services? and what can you anticipate in terms of commitment to being involved with the clinic?.

Following the intake, if you are still interested in pursuing participation, then you will be given information about how to join the patient portal. Then, you will receive the necessary forms to start your participation and schedule an evaluation.

You may pay at time of service in person with cash, check, Zelle, bank transfer, or credit card. If having a telehealth appointment, you may pay via the patient portal at time of service.

If you think you will not be able to make payments at the time of service, please let us know beforehand so that we can walk you through the financing option.

Our center has chosen to use Advance Care as the financing option available for our patients. Please submit an application online via their website below.  Our staff is available to answer questions regarding this process as well. 

www.advancecarecard.com

Although we do not accept insurance directly. We can provide superbills for patients to be reimbursed directly by their insurance companies.

The patient portal is a central component of a number of facets of patient care. It will allow the center to communicate with you regarding your clinical services, educational materials, and allow you to make credit card payments.

When you become a patient, you will register to have patient portal access, and going forward, you will actively receive forms to review and complete through the portal. This will facilitate communication and improve overall delivery of services to you.

There are three components to an evaluation.

The first component will involve the center collecting clinically-oriented forms with specific questions about demographics and other clinically-relevant information. These will be sent to you via the patient portal, and we will review this information and incorporate it into your evaluation.

Following, the second component will be a formal evaluation and will involve either your being evaluated online via the Telehealth component of the patient portal or in an in-person session. This session will last approximately two hours and will involve review of the information you have provided to us and a traditional clinical assessment.

At the completion of this component, further testing might be indicated. This may be done within the clinic or referred to outside professionals with desired skills that are required for the formal evaluation.

From the first two components will come the more traditional identification of significant mental, emotional, and behavioral conditions. Major symptoms will be identified and a treatment plan and prescriptions will be identified and, if you would like, will be implemented.

The third component will be a functional evaluation and will involve the characterization of your functioning in multiple areas. This component will often occur after we have begun treatment since these areas of functioning will take time to improve.

We will be evaluating your executive functioning, your daily living skills, and your functioning in the areas of work, school, family, interpersonal relationships, and potentially illness and preparation for death.

• Complete psychiatric evaluations

It is our belief that without a complete psychiatric evaluation, it is often that the most significant and difficult conditions will not be dealt with.

It will be up to our judgment what the evaluation will include. Some evaluations may be within the center while others may be referred to outside professionals. From this, major mental conditions will be identified, and time will be taken for these to be explained to you.

• Psychoeducation

It is important that you understand your conditions, how they affect your life, and to what degree might an improvement in your conditions result in an improvement of the quality of your life.

This is particularly important in children and adolescents since not understanding these conditions can lead to harmful effects on a person’s life forever.

• Psychopharmacology

There are a broad range of psychopharmacological agents, medications, or drugs that can be of assistance in bringing about a stabilization of mental, emotional, and behavioral conditions.

We have vast experience in dealing with almost all medications in these areas as either single therapeutic agents or in conjunction. We will do everything possible to choose the right medications, monitor these medications, and combine them in a judicious fashion to help you as much as possible while minimizing side effects.

But, we are aware that oftentimes medications alone will not bring about the types of changes that people need to function better and have a more fulfilling life.

• Psychiatry Infusions

New to the growing list of potential psychopharmacological agents is Infusions. We see Infusions as being an adjunct treatment and not a singular treatment for any psychiatric condition.

What this means is that after an infusion, a patient might be maintained on a combination of antidepressants and mood stabilizers with Infusions administration. Further, it is not clear that Infusions administration will ever be able to be discontinued and a person might need to be on Infusions , at least sublingual preparations, forever.

• Psychotherapies

There are a broad range of psychotherapies that can be implemented to improve the quality of your life.

These include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and insight oriented therapy for individuals, couples, and families.

• Functional remediation

After your functional assessment, we will have a fairly specific understanding of the types of functional difficulties you have, at what level, and in what areas. We offer work with therapists who will help grow in these areas specifically either individually or in groups.

• Integrative psychiatry modalities

Given that we believe that the core of everyone’s being is a balance between the mind, body, and soul, we will be offering classes dealing with specific topics in these areas.

These may include yoga, mindfulness training, self compassion training, and lectures from religious organizations such as the catholic church or buddhist temples. Further, classes may deal with proper diet and exercise. Classes offered are always evolving and will be updated frequently.