Health and Medical Clinical Psychology

Welcome to Health and Medical Clinical Psychology

We provide high quality psychological services into physical health services. Often working as part of multi-disciplinary teams, our psychologists help patients, their carers and the staff caring for them to benefit from a fuller understanding of their condition and support psychological adjustment and condition management.
The Health and Medical service comprises:
-  clinical psychologists  - trainee clinical psychologists  -  assistant psychologists  -  administrative staff  -

Clinical Psychologists in Sheffield work as part of multidisciplinary healthcare teams working with patients with the following physical health conditions:  diabetes, breast cancer, HIV, CFS/ME and in palliative care - in hospital and primary care settings.  We also have clinical psychologists working within physical health services in Rotherham – general health referrals, children with health conditions, and palliative care.

Clinical psychologists work within the following services:
Primary Care
    Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME service for South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire
    Sheffield PCT Community Palliative Care
    NHS Sheffield Public Health Development Nursing
Rotherham
    Palliative Care at Rotherham Hospice
    Generic physical health service at Rotherham District General Hospital

How do we help?
We offer a comprehensive range of clinical psychology, this includes:

Direct therapeutic interventions: undertaking psychological assessments and treatments of patients and carers with complex psychological or mental health problems.

The following are examples of why a referral to Health and Medical Psychology Services may be beneficial:
    helping with difficulties in coming to terms with, or dealing with, aspects of illness or diagnosis
    psychological issues related to treatment and the longer term implications of illnesses
    significant feelings of depression or anxiety
    persistent worry and distress
    relationship and communication issues
    body image issues and/or psychosexual problems
    assisting with symptom management (e.g. pain, breathlessness, fatigue)
    difficulties in coping psychologically that are affecting engagement with medical treatment  e.g. anticipatory nausea, needle phobias or other fear reactions
    trauma associated with illness, physical trauma and health care related experiences
    screening and preparation for surgery
    medically difficult to explain symptoms

We also provide:

    Advice and consultation to other healthcare staff on aspects of the psychological care of patients and the management of complex cases.
    Clinical supervision across a wide range of professions and specialities, including: specialist registrars, specialist nurses and nurse consultants, dieticians and health advisors
    Support, supervision and teaching for those undergoing professional training programmes and to psychologists undertaking the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology professional training programme in Sheffield
    Support and training  to other healthcare staff, to support the delivery and continued development of psychologically informed care.
    Research activities to enhance the evidence-base for clinical practice and service improvement.
    Leadership and strategy development: working in partnership with commissioners and service providers across care pathways to develop and enhance psychological care provision.

The involvement of Health and Medical psychologists can be seen in many aspects of care, for example:
    Development of group based interventions to enhance support for people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and painful neuropathy.
    Contributing to the development of a Type 1 Diabetes Care Pathway with the specialist diabetes service.
    Taking a lead in championing the establishment of the  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME service in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. This means that people with this condition now have co-ordinated and effective help from a range of professionals in primary care.
    Member of planning group for the Sheffield Conference: Tackling Child and Adult Obesity in Sheffield: Evidence, Policy and Practice. See Sheffield Health and Social Research Consortium for the conference report, including presentation from our academic health psychology colleagues.

Training and support for other healthcare professionals, including:

    Training programme on psychological contributions to chronic disease management in community settings
    Facilitation of clinical supervision groups for diabetes nurse specialists

Involvement in national forums such as:

    The British Psychological Society (BPS) Faculties for Addictions and for Sexual Health and HIV.

Representation on:
    Sheffield Sexual Health Network
    Sheffield Palliative Care Committee
    North Trent Cancer Network
How can you be referred?
Referrals to Health and Medical Psychology services are usually made through the Specialist Medical Services that we work into or sometimes directly by GPs in Sheffield, Rotherham and surrounding areas.
Can I refer myself?
No. We are unable to accept direct self-referrals.

For anyone who is not already in touch with a healthcare service, the initial point of contact for help is your GP, who can arrange help directly or refer you to specialist services, as appropriate.

Who do we work with?
Locally
Sheffield Sexual Health Network
North Trent Cancer Network
NHS Sheffield Primary Care Trust
Sheffield Health and Social Care Research Consortium
St Luke's Hospice
The University of Sheffield
Weston Park Hospital
Rotherham Hospice
Rotherham District General Hospital

Nationally:
The British Psychological Society (BPS) Faculties for Addictions and for Sexual Health and HIV
The British Psychological Society

Our contact and location details
Deborah Gamsu/ Rebecca Haines : Joint Interim Head of Division

Our administrative base is :

Psychological Services
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Fulwood House
Old Fulwood Road
Sheffield  S10 3TH

Office hours: Mon-Fri 9.00am - 5.00pm
Tel:  0114 271 6765
Fax:  0114 271 6399
There is a voicemail service outside of office hours.

Services are based at hospitals and other centres across Sheffield and Rotherham.

A map showing their locations is available at
http://tinyurl.com/healthmed-map

Please contact us if you have any queries about our services. We aim to return your calls as soon as possible.

Giving us feedback
We are keen to hear your feedback and welcome your involvement as part of helping us to improve what we do.
We involve people who use our services in satisfaction surveys and in service planning. This gives us helpful information on your experience of using services and what we need to think about for future developments.

Our information leaflets
We produce a number of leaflets to let you know about seeing a clinical psychologist and the work of the specialist teams to support you in using our services. These include:

    Type 1 Diabetes Care pathway leaflets
    Clinical Psychology Service in Sheffield Breast Services
    HIV Service patient information leaflet

This page was last updated on 19th November 2012