Psychological services

• About our services

  Psychological Services consists of clinical psychologists, family therapists and child psychotherapists, who provide psychosocial assessment and therapeutic services across Sheffield Children’s Hospital. We offer expert help to children and families, listening to the difficulties they have and working with them so they can find ways of managing and changing for the better.
   
  The director of psychological services, Steve Jones, is based at The Becton Centre. He is also joint clincal director of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), with Dr Evette Girgis, and is on the Governing Board of the Trust, is a member of the Trust Executive Group, the Sheffield Child Mental Health and Emotional Well Being Strategy Group and the CAMHS Management Group.
   
  All psychological services staff are registered with professional bodies – the Health Professions Council for Clinical Psychologists, Association for Family Therapists, and the Association for Child Psychotherapists. Staff receive regular clinical supervision and have opportunities for professional development.
   
  Psychological services has an excellent reputation for recruitment and retention, and has built excellent partnership relationships within Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust and with the local authority and other agencies. Staff have been instrumental in bidding for outside funding and negotiating contracts to set up new and  innovative services such as the Multi-Agency Psychological Support (MAPS) service for looked after children, and the multisystemic therapy service.

  Members of Psychological Services work into multidisciplinary teams across the trust, particularly the child and adolescent mental health service teams (CAMHS), hospital teams (paediatric psychology) and Ryegate (neurodevelopmental psychology). Brief information on these teams is given below, and further information can be found on the web pages of those particular teams and services.

• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service teams

  Each of the CAMHS teams has one or more psychologists and most have a family therapist.

  These teams include :

  The community CAMHS teams – Beighton and Centenary House.
  The four regional Tier 4 services at The Becton Centre.

  The specialist Learning Difficulties and mental Health service.

  • The forensic service.
  • The multisystemic therapy team.
  • MAPS service for Looked After Children

  We also support two trainee child and adolescent psychotherapists from the Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and one (temporary) qualified psychotherapist within the community CAMHS teams.

• Paediatric Psychology

  Paediatric clinical psychologists work with children and families where the child has a physical health problem and work closely with the medical teams within the hospital.  Clinical psychologists aim to help children, young people and their families in times of difficulty.  We listen to your concerns and try to understand your situation and find a helpful way forward.  We are here to help you to make changes for the better.  
   
  Paediatric psychologists are available to help children and families across the hospital, and also work into specialist teams:
  The Pain Clinic

  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • Burns
  • Oncology
  • Chronic Fatigue
  • The Child Assessment Unit

• Ryegate Centre

  The Ryegate Centre provides assessment and interventions relating to child development and neurodisability.  The psychologists who work in the Ryegate centre contribute to the assessment and support of children aged 0-16 , particularly those with social and communication, attentional and neurodisability problems and those needing palliative care.

• Multisystemic Therapy team

  This team works intensively with families and young people, where there is a high level of concern, and where the young person is at risk of coming into care, particularly due to their own risky behaviours. The MST programme is highly structured and closely supervised and is part of a nation wide research project

• MAPS and Forensic

   

  MAPS

  This multidisciplinary team offers help and support to looked after children who are presenting with emotional and mental health problems. They work closely with foster carers, residential homes and social services to improve the well-being and stability of children. 

  Forensic

  This service works with young people who have offended or are at risk of offending and have emotional and mental health problems. they work closely with families, youth offending service workers and professional carers, offering consultation and direct therapeutic work.