Conditions · Autism · Telehealth in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
Autism care in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
I’m Dr. Sirin Ozdemir, a double board-certified child, adolescent & adult psychiatrist, fellowship-trained in autism at Massachusetts General Hospital. I care for children and teens with autism and for autistic adults, ages 6 to 60. Telehealth in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In-person appointments in Massachusetts when the case calls for it.
Where I start
A different way of experiencing the world
Autism is a different way of perceiving, processing, and experiencing the world. It comes with real strengths and real challenges, and the challenges deserve careful medical care, delivered by someone who respects the person they belong to.
I don’t find broad severity labels useful, so I don’t use them. I describe support needs instead: what would actually help this particular child or adult, in this particular season of their life. And I hold on to a lesson from my fellowship training at Mass General: the most important shift a doctor can make is to stop trying to correct the person in front of them and start trying to understand them.
In practice, thoughtful psychiatric care in autism rarely starts with autism itself. It starts with what’s making life harder right now: anxiety that has taken over, sleep that never settles, attention that won’t cooperate, emotions that arrive faster than they can be managed. My job is to understand how those pieces fit together in one particular person, and to build treatment around that understanding.
Children & teens
For parents of children and teens with autism
Many parents arrive here after a long road: waitlists, conflicting opinions, reports that describe their child without quite capturing them. So let me say the important part first: my goal is not to change who your child is. It’s to understand your child well enough that the hard parts of their life get easier.
For a child or teen with autism, that usually means caring for the whole picture. Anxiety that shows up as school refusal, rigidity, or meltdowns. Attention differences that complicate learning. Sleep that affects the entire household. Big transitions, like a new school or adolescence itself, that can shake a hard-won routine. These are the places where a psychiatrist can genuinely help, and they’re where we’ll focus.
You are part of the plan, not an observer of it. Parents and caregivers join visits as a matter of course. And before we ever meet, I read what you send: school reports, IEPs, prior evaluations, notes from other clinicians. That way the first appointment is spent on your child, not on catching me up.
Adults
For autistic adults
Autistic adults often reach me after years of being misread: called anxious, oversensitive, difficult, or simply told nothing was wrong. Some were diagnosed as children and haven’t had care that took autism into account since. Some are asking the question for the first time in their thirties, forties, or fifties. Every one of those is a legitimate way to arrive.
Working hard, for years, to appear at ease in settings that weren’t built for you has a cost, often paid in anxiety, exhaustion, and low mood. Naming that pattern accurately is frequently the first genuinely useful thing a psychiatrist can do, because it changes what the treatment should be.
I assume you know your own mind and history better than anyone, and my job is to add medical judgment to that self-knowledge, not to override it. The intake form asks what would make appointments work better for you, and the answers shape how we work, including moving between telehealth and in-person visits as your needs change.
The whole picture
Autism rarely travels alone
Anxiety, ADHD, and sleep problems are common alongside autism, and they’re often what actually brings someone to a psychiatrist. Treating them well means understanding how autism shapes the way they show up.
Anxiety
In autism, anxiety often hides in plain sight: as rigidity, refusal, shutdown, or an unshakable need for sameness. Recognizing it for what it is opens the way to treating it.
About anxiety care →ADHD
Autism and ADHD frequently occur together, and each changes how the other looks. Sorting out what drives what matters, because it changes what will actually help.
About ADHD care →Sleep & emotional regulation
Disrupted sleep and fast-arriving emotions amplify everything else. I treat them as part of the same picture, not as afterthoughts.
Evaluations
How autism evaluation works here
If you’re wondering whether you, or your child, may be autistic, the question deserves a thorough answer, not a rushed one. My evaluations are physician-led and unhurried: a detailed developmental history, direct clinical assessment, review of school, medical, and prior-testing records, standardized measures when clinically indicated, and a written report explained in a feedback session. Because I’m a psychiatrist, the same evaluation can take on co-occurring medical and psychiatric questions, and treatment can continue here afterward, if you want it to.
Telehealth in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In-person appointments in Massachusetts when the case calls for it. You’ll need to be physically located in Massachusetts or Rhode Island during telehealth visits. In-person appointments may be necessary depending on the case and the evaluation process; I’ll tell you honestly whether a telehealth-based evaluation is clinically appropriate for your situation before anything is scheduled.
Evaluation requests are reviewed for fit before scheduling: I confirm I’m the right fit for what you need, and refer you well if I’m not. First appointments are 90 to 120 minutes, typically within 1 to 2 weeks.
Medication
Honest answers about medication in autism
There is no medication for autism itself, and I won’t pretend otherwise. What medication can sometimes do, used thoughtfully and sparingly, is ease the co-occurring problems that get in the way: serious anxiety, low mood, attention difficulties, disrupted sleep, or emotional overwhelm that makes daily life harder than it needs to be.
My prescribing is conservative by conviction. I’d rather understand what’s feeding a symptom (sleep, physical health, environment, the demands a person is carrying) before adding anything to treat it. When medication does earn a place in the plan, we start carefully, watch closely, and keep only what proves its worth.
All prescribing follows federal and state requirements, and periodic in-person visits may be required depending on the medication and the case.
Ready to begin?
Send the inquiry form and you will hear back within 3 business days. Dr. Ozdemir reviews every inquiry herself and confirms fit before anything is scheduled.
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