The Clinical Psychology service for under 5’s with complex health needs is part of Specialist Children’s Services at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust. The service is provided by a Clinical Psychologist, Dr Siobhan Dunleavy, with support from a Trainee Clinical Psychologist. The team is based at the Child Development Centres in Harrogate and Northallerton.
The service is designed to support pre-school children who have complex physical health needs requiring ongoing support from two or more specialist therapy service e.g. Physiotherapy, Nursing, Dietitians, Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy.
Referrals
Referrals must be made by a healthcare professional who is actively involved in the child’s care. A referral can be made via email or SystmOne electronic patient medical records. If the referral meets our eligibility criteria, we offer the child and their family an initial appointment to determine if we are the best service to support you.
Support
We offer an initial assessment to work out if we are the best service to meet your needs, and to develop goals if we plan to work together, We offer talking therapy appointment for parents/carers over 6-8 sessions. The appointments can be in person, online or via telephone at a frequency that best suits the family.
Our services include:
- Understanding a families’ emotional wellbeing needs when caring for a child with complex health needs.
- Working with families to help understand their child’s presentation and behaviours
- Supporting families with adjustment to their child’s diagnosis
- Interventions to help children manage fears and phobias related to their medical treatment
- Supporting other people in a child’s network to understand their unique needs and strengths
- Attending and contributing to a range of meetings including Child in Need, Looked after Child and multi-agency planning meetings
- Liaising with nursery and childcare providers to provide advice on how to best support the child
- Working in partnership with other agencies including GPs, Speech and language therapists, paediatricians, dieticians, occupational therapists, children’s community nurses, children’s learning disability nurses, portage and social services.
- Contributing to multi-team assessments
- Signposting and referrals to appropriate services and support.