Living with a health condition or injury can be a very challenging experience for children, young people and families. It is not uncommon to go through a range of different thoughts and feelings about your health, which can impact on mood, well-being and quality of life.
We are a team of Clinical Psychologists, Neuropsychologists, Counsellors and Play Specialists who offer confidential emotional support to help you manage difficult feelings about your health, such as worry, anger and low mood. We can also offer support with adjusting to illness and injury, managing treatment plans and procedures and coping with pain/discomfort.
What we do
We support a wide range of difficulties that relate to your medical conditions including:
- Low mood
- Anxiety about medical procedures
- Pain which is difficult to control through medication alone
- Problems with sleeping
- Consideration of relationship to food and body within the context of health conditions
- Coping with isolation
- Body image concerns
- Difficulties adjusting to a diagnosis
- Low mood about being in hospital
- Parental worries about a child’s health
- Behaviour management
- Difficulties with family relationships
- Worries about school
- Neurorehabilitation
- Cognitive and learning impairment
We work with inpatients and outpatients at our Ä¢¹½tvÊÓƵ General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital sites and start by offering an initial assessment. We will listen and talk to you about the things you may be finding difficult and other aspects about your life that are important, such as family, school/college. We can then work with you to develop a plan to help, for example by offering one to one therapy or identifying the most appropriate service and signposting.
We recognise it can sometimes feel very difficult to talk through personal thoughts and feelings; however, we are experienced clinicians who are trained to listen. We go at your pace, and you are welcome to have a family member or carer present with you, if this would be helpful. We also offer virtual appointments if this works better for you or your family.
First sessions usually last an hour to an hour and a half. Some people attend for a one-off appointment, other young people and families see us more often. We keep a written summary of discussions, and all information is stored securely. We only share what we have talked about with professionals involved in your care.
To speak to a member of our team you will need to be under the care of a medical Consultant at The Ä¢¹½tvÊÓƵ. You may ask your medical team or GP to refer you.Â
How to find us
As we are such a large team offering services to a number of teams, we do not have one specific location where we offer appointments.
We will either invite you to meet us here at the hospital, see you on the ward or offer a virtual appointment. We have several different locations where we offer appointments at Ä¢¹½tvÊÓƵ General Infirmary and St James’ University Hospital sites.
Contact us
Telephone number: (0113) 392Â 5143
Postal address: Paediatric Psychology Service, E-floor, Martin Wing, Ä¢¹½tvÊÓƵ General Infirmary, LS1 3EX.
Telephone number: (0113) 392Â 5143