Parents and children come to see us for lots of different reasons, and typical difficulties include:

• Difficulty adjusting to a medical diagnosis or help managing a chronic illness (e.g. Cancer, Epilepsy, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes, Cerebral Palsy, Asthma)
• Problems with taking medicines or sticking to a particular treatment regime
• Anxiety problems related to a child’s condition and preparing for hospital procedures (for example, blood tests, injections or surgery)
• The effects of illness on the family
• Coping with pain
• Persistent Physical Symptoms  
• Cognitive assessment and interventions related to their medical condition. These assessments look at the child’s cognitive ability and thinking skills with language and non-verbal materials, memory and speed of processing information

The team also provide psychological assessment for children and young people admitted onto one of the Trust’s two children’s wards; G2 ward at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Northbrook Ward at Royal Hampshire County Hospital (Winchester). 

We have regular joint clinics with paediatricians and engage in multi-disciplinary work with other professionals within the child health department.  Psychologists in the team offer specialist input to the two Paediatric Diabetes teams and two Neurodisability teams.  

The team at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital have been specifically commissioned by the North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to offer Autism Spectrum Disorder assessments for Preschool children born up to the 31st August of school Year R.  These assessments are carried out alongside the team of community paediatricians. 

Please note: We do not provide pre-school autism assessment for children under the care of RHCH; this is provided by the Consultant Community Paediatricians at RHCH.   

We also work alongside and closely with the local schools and colleges that children and young people attend.  We liaise with other teams that support children and young people, including Hampshire Specialist CAMHS (SPFT NHS Trust).

Hampshire Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust Paediatric Psychology Service has bases in the following hospitals:

• Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital
• Royal Hampshire County Hospital

Those children and young people who receive their medical care at Andover War Memorial Hospital are offered the choice to attend appointments at either BNHH or RHCH to suit their preference. 

We can offer a choice of both face-to-face and remote appointments.

• Dr. Danielle McLymont, Principal Clinical Psychologist, and Paediatric Psychology Clinical Lead (General Paediatrics and Neurodisability)
• Dr. Karen McClintock, Senior Clinical Psychologist, (General Paediatrics and Diabetes)
• Dr. Nikkita Osiadacz, Senior Clinical Psychologist, (General Paediatrics and Diabetes)
• Dr. Kajal Gohil, Senior Clinical Psychologist, (General Paediatrics)
• Dr. Emma Harris, Senior Clinical Psychologist, (BNHH Early Years Autism Team)
• Melissa Dean, Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist, (BNHH Early Years Autism Team)
• Sophie Orr, Child Development Practitioner (BNHH Early Years Autism Team)
• Mia Squires, ASD Coordinator and Psychology Secretary (BNHH)
• Emma Kerkhoff, ERS and Psychology Support Secretary (RHCH)

Referrals are internal only, which means they must be made by an HHFT Consultant staff and for a child/young person aged 0-17 year old in treatment at the hospital. To access the service the child or young person will require a referral from their Consultant or other senior HHFT health care professional. Due to our specific commissioning arrangements, we cannot accept self-referrals or referrals from GPs, schools or other services. 

When we receive a referral we will discuss it as a team to ensure we are the most appropriate service for your child. If we then feel that the Paediatric Psychology service might be of use to you, we will write to you to let you know your child is on our waiting list.  We might be able to recommend some resources to work through whilst you are waiting for an appointment with us. 

At the first appointment the clinical psychologist would offer to meet with the child or young person, with their family.  When assessing young people, some time will be offered to meet with the young person on their own, alongside time with their parent(s)/carer.  

The assessment may take a couple of sessions. The aim of the assessment is to work with you to understand your child’s needs and to decide whether we feel that psychological therapy will be helpful.

If it is felt the child or young person can be offered an ongoing intervention to address the psychological impact of their health condition, then goals for the intervention will be set and a care plan devised.  This should document the type of therapy that will be offered.  We offer a range of different therapies based on the child’s or young person’s needs.  We will usually offer you an initial set number of appointments, which can be reviewed as we go along. This allows us to make sure that we are being most helpful to you and your child, and that we are meeting your needs.

During the initial assessment we may decide with you that the paediatric psychology service is not the most appropriate service to meet your child’s needs.  In this case, we will, with your consent, use our assessment to make a referral or suggest self-referral to another more appropriate service e.g. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), a local counselling service or ELSA support within the educational setting.  In some circumstances we may be able to recommend useful self-help resources for you to use whilst waiting for an input from our team. After the first appointment an assessment report will be sent to the referrer as appropriate. 

All qualified clinical psychologists in the team have both a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a doctoral (PhD level) degree in Clinical Psychology. They are all registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Many are also members of our professional organisation, the British Psychological Society (BPS).  All the team are DBS checked and undergo Safeguarding Children training. 

We offer placements to Trainee Clinical Psychologists from the local clinical psychology doctorate course at the University of Southampton.

We respect confidentiality, and therefore will not discuss your child with other professionals unless we have previously discussed this with you and have gained your consent to do so. The only exception to this would be if we were concerned for the safety of your child or family, but we would keep you informed of this.