Bariatric Surgery Mental Health Clearance Letter &
individualized plan for behavioral intervention
Jennifer Gollinger, PhD, LCSW is a Member of the American Society of Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery.
“Preoperative psychosocial assessment is the standard of care for patients seeking weight-loss surgery (WLS). However, the assessment procedure varies widely by surgery site. Comprehensive assessments can provide a wealth of information that assists both the patient and the treatment team, anticipate and prepare for challenges associated with extensive behavioral and lifestyle changes that are required post surgery”. Reference
Also, managed care providers require a psychosocial evaluation by a mental health professional prior to granting financial approval.
There is no published structure of the content for a psychosocial evaluation’s guidelines, however Jennifer Gollinger has conducted extensive research on the necessary assessment topics to be included, administers these tests that are effective for this type of clearance and collaborates with your medical team with your signed consent.
MMPI-2-RF: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (an objective measure of psychological adjustment and personality traits).MBMD: The Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic (helps predict medical compliance and lifestyle adjustment).BDI-II: Beck Depression Inventory (assesses the severity of depressive symptoms).EDI-3: Eating Disorder Inventory (screens for eating pathology, such as binge-eating or restrictive behaviors).
I want the surgery but mentally I am all over the place…
We work with you over sessions to help you prepare through addressing emotional eating, developing coping mechanisms to manage life now and after surgery.
Through the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and counseling to ensure emotional readiness, treat anxiety or depression and alighn your expectations for your long-terrm changes, we work with you to identify potential barriers that could affect your surgery success.
Counseling helps you to build new habits and stress awareness and we recommend also joining support groups to connect with patients with similar experiences which can help reduce feelings of isolation.
You sign consents to allow us to consult with your primary care doctor to collaborate and provide our mental health clearance supporting your motivation toward making lifestyle changes.
We provide collaborative clearance with your primary care doctor toward your changes which are required to maximize the likelihood of successful, sustained weight loss, and would therefore benefit you to obtain weight loss surgery to improve your overall health, quality of life, and to minimize your risk of obesity related comorbidities.
Our Clearance Letter provides a Mental Health Clearance that you are mentally able and willing to be compliant with the necessary post-procedural dietary restrictions.
We do not provide this letter to one time visits. We only complete this letter for established clients.
If you have in-network health coverage this letter would be part of your regular session as extra paperwork we would complete and there is no charge to you unless you have a co-pay with your plan.
If you are paying as a self-pay you will also be an established client and would pay for the rate listed on our services page as this is an extensive assessment.
Please direct any questions by completing the form below. Thank you
