Paediatric psychology
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Clinical Psychologists are trained in the understanding of how people thinks, feel and behave, and in the Paediatric Psychology Service our job is to help children and families cope with the psychological aspects of health and illness.
What we offer
The way we work is to start by talking with children and/or their parents to try and work out how best we can help. Sometimes we will meet several times, or we may only need to meet once or twice. We see people either as out-patients or when they are in hospital. People come to us for lots of reasons, for example anxiety about hospital procedures; coping with pain; trauma following an accident; effects of the illness on family members; stress related symptoms and management of children in hospital.
It can be easy to get anxious when you are not well, and sometimes being anxious, stressed or worried can make you unwell in the first place. In the Paediatric Psychology team we support children and their families with issues around illness, accidents and anxiety. We work to help children and families identify triggers that make them anxious. Then we would find techniques to help manage the anxiety or worry.
Often facing our fears helps us to realise they are not quite as scary as we first thought, and over time we can get used to things we used to be very frightened of, such as injections or a medical procedure, or even coming to see the doctor in the first place. However we can’t do that unless we have some techniques to help us manage the feelings we get when faced with something like this.
Relaxation tracks
The following tracks can be used in 2 ways to help manage anxiety, stress or worry. Firstly they can be used to practice relaxation, which is a way of learning to feel in control of our body and finding out about calming down. Practicing every night before bed or first thing in the morning, gets our body used to being in a calm state. They can also be used when we have to do something anxiety provoking. Just listening to a track on the way to the hospital, or when we are in the waiting room can help us to keep calm and not let anxiety overwhelm us.
Track 1 – De-Stress Exercise
Track 2 – Tension and relaxation Exercise
Track 3 – Breathing Exercise
There are also some great apps out there which have more tools. Check out Mindshift for example, which is free and has relaxation tracks and much more.
Contact details
Paediatric Psychology Service
2nd Floor
Lanesborough Wing
St George’s Hospital
Blackshaw
London SW17 0QT
Tel: 0208 725 2214
Team Secretaries: Stephanie Piper, Amanda Smith, Francisco Porras
Key staff
- Gillian Colville – Head of Depatment/Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Caroline Campbell – Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Rachel Harman – Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Sara Latif – Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Ellie Atkins– Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Ruth Hunter– Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Julia Newbery– Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Megan Shakesheff– Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Jo Blundell– Clinical Psychologist
- Dr Kate Golding – Clinical Psychologist in Neuropsychology
- Dr Sally Robinson – Neuropsychologist
Referrals
Referrals are internal only, which means they must be made by a member of St George’s staff and for a child/young person aged 0-17 year old in treatment at the hospital
Use of patient data
The Paediatric Psychology Service has used paper notes since its establishment. The service is currently undergoing a process of digitisation to ensure all patient information and documentation is retained on our Electronic Patient Record System (EPR). This transition will enhance transparency of psychological input among the professionals involved in providing medical care and improve accessibility for patients and families to access their full medical record upon request.
For more information on how we collect, use and retain personal information which we hold, please see the St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Privacy Notice.