Listening, understanding and caring for you: LUCY project

Listening, understanding and caring for you – wellbeing support for young people with physical health conditions

To access the wellbeing support you need to already be seeing a specialist doctor for your physical health condition. There’s no specific list of conditions the support is available for – the team has helped young people with lots of different health issues, like benign tumours, non-epileptic seizures, and haemophilia.  We’re not able to offer this support to you if your main reason for needing help with anxiety is conditions such as Autism, ADHD, tics or Tourette’s.

The support is available through Sheffield Children’s Hospital and is provided at Barnsley Hospital, Doncaster Hospital, Rotherham Hospital, Airedale Hospital, The Great North Children’s Hospital, Jersey Hospital, and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

You can ask for help yourself by filling in an online referral form (referral in South Yorkshire, or outside of South Yorkshire). A children’s wellbeing practitioner will then get in touch to explain what happens next. If the support isn’t right for you, they’ll help you find the right support.

If wellbeing support is suitable, you’ll have 6 to 8 sessions with a children’s wellbeing practitioner. Each session lasts about 45 minutes and happens over the phone or video call.

During the sessions, you and the practitioner will

• Talk about what’s been difficult for you
• Work together to find ways to feel better
• Set goals for where you want to be and make a plan to get there

The focus is giving you space to be listened to, understood and have a safe space to talk, get support, and work on feeling better while managing your health condition. We’re here to care for you.

What have families said about the support?

• “She really struggled with overall anxiety due to her health problems, which crossed over to separation anxiety. The support received has helped us to manage her separation anxiety and she’s in a much more position mind frame about being left at bedtime, and being able to go out and leave her. The sessions gave clarity about why she was feeling the way she was, and steps we can put in place to improve her understanding of situations to take some of the stress about it.”
• “The children’s wellbeing practitioner has bonded with my daughter hugely and I think that has really helped her to achieve a lot of the goals she had. They’ve worked with her to identify a lot of the reasons she feels upset and angry, and has worked on lots of different coping mechanisms.”

What have young people said about the support?

• A child with a benign bone tumour was worried about playing sports because of a fear of getting injured and was experiencing panic attacks. Through wellbeing support, the young person worked with a children’s wellbeing practitioner to explore these worries and the reasons behind avoiding sports. They are now gradually reintroducing different sports and activities that are important to the young person, taking positive steps forward.
• A child with haemophilia, a condition that affects the blood’s ability to clot, was finding the routine of taking injections twice a day to manage their health, hard to adhere to, even though the injections themselves weren’t the problem. The child and their family worked with the wellbeing team to make taking the medication calmer and easier. They used parent-led strategies and learning about anxiety to help manage worries and stick to the routine.
• A child who experiences non-epileptic seizures, often triggered by shock, pain, or fear, wanted help to understand and express their emotions and try new ways of coping. They had a lot of separation anxiety, which affected school, bedtime, and daily life. With support from the project team, things have improved so much that now Mum can have a bath on her own.

Refer yourself today to get support in South Yorkshire

Refer yourself today to get support outside of South Yorkshire