Better Together for Healthy Bone Marrow

Emotional Wellbeing Support

As part of the ‘Better Together for Healthy Bone Marrow’ collaboration between the six charities listed below, the Psychology Team can offer specialist emotional wellbeing support to members of the Better Together communities facing emotional challenges relating to their or their loved one’s medical condition.

This support is delivered by Lesley and Naomi, who are both Clinical Psychologists, specialising in supporting people managing complex physical health conditions.

This support can include, for example:

Helping people adjust to, and cope with, the emotional impact and stresses that can occur with a medical condition;
Coping with a sense that the future is uncertain;
Coping with how illness affects relationships;
Managing the demands of home and family life while caring for yourself/loved one;
Coping with adjustment, change, loss;
Coping with symptoms or treatment side-effects such as pain, fatigue, brain-fog.

what sort of support is on offer?

At the current time, you can access the following forms of emotional wellbeing support:

Online courses – we offer a number of online courses throughout the year, including:
- Managing Stress & Uncertainty
- Mindfulness
- Where Now?
Webinars – we run webinars on a number of emotional wellbeing topics, with new webinars open for registration at least every other month
One to one, tailored support from our psychology team

All of our support is provided to our communities without charge.

what can I register for at the moment?

Please keep an eye on this page for details of courses and webinars that are open for registration now!

Course: Managing Stress & Uncertainty
Starting 8th January 2024

Webinar: Everyday Mindfulness
Coming soon!

who do i contact for more information or a referral?

Each of the charities providing these support services, have a designated ‘Emotional Wellbeing Coordinator’ in place. You can contact these people (in confidence) for more information about any of this support, and for a referral into the Psychology Team.

If you are supported by one of these six charities, please contact your Emotional Wellbeing Coordinator
using the relevant email address below:

SDS UK: heather@sdsuk.org

PNH Support: alex.naylor@pnhuk.org

Fanconi Hope: beth.lee@fanconihope.org

DC ACTION: community@super-rare.org

CAN: community@super-rare.org

The Aplastic Anaemia Trust: vburford@theaat.org.uk

Should you require more immediate support, please do not hesitate to contact your GP or out of hours support if necessary. In an emergency, please call 999.

There are also a number of national services supporting people in a crisis, such as:
the Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/ (phone 116 123)
https://giveusashout.org/ (text ‘SHOUT’ to 85258).

For more information, visit:
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/crisis-services/getting-help-in-a-crisis/
or
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/behaviours/help-for-suicidal-thoughts/

For more general advice on finding the words to talk to your GP about your mental health, visit: https://www.mind.org.uk/findthewords See also: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/

Confidentiality and your personal information

The Psychology Team adhere to professional codes of conduct stipulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). All information, including everything discussed in sessions, is held securely and confidentially by the Psychology Team. That means we will not share it with anyone else unless you ask us to on your behalf, and only after agreeing with you first what to share. However, there are some limits to confidentiality:

if you give information to suggest that you or someone else is at risk of harm. In these circumstances, the Psychologist may be obliged to break the bounds of confidentiality to pass on information to a third party (e.g., GP or emergency services). This would be discussed with you first wherever possible;
if ordered to do so by a court or the police;
the Psychologist may discuss their work within clinical supervision, which is a professional requirement in order to maintain registration to practice and to ensure the quality of service provided. Whatever is shared in clinical supervision is also held within the bounds of confidentiality.

If you ask for any written information to be passed on to a third party on your behalf, we will need your permission in writing to do this.

For information on how your data are used and stored, you can view the Privacy Policy here.

Feedback and complaints

We really value your feedback to help us learn how to improve as a service. If you have any concerns or complaints about the service you receive from the Psychologist, we encourage you to discuss those with them directly in the first instance. You may also contact the Better Together Project Manager, Claire Baggott cbaggott@theaat.org.uk.