The Better Together for Healthy Bone Marrow

Psychology Team

As part of the ‘Better Together for Healthy Bone Marrow’ collaboration, the Psychology Team can offer specialist psychological 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 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.

How to request help from the Psychology Team

To access this service, each of the Better Together charities has a designated Emotional Wellbeing Coordinator who can help decide whether a referral to the Psychology Team might be appropriate and refer members of their community to the Team.

As the Psychology Team are only available one day a week, this process involving the Emotional Wellbeing Coordinators helps ensure that people are given the right information and support at the right time. Each Emotional Wellbeing Coordinator receives training and ongoing support in their role from the Psychology Team, and they will always treat any discussions about requests for help with community members confidentially and sensitively.

What happens when a referral is made

As part of the referral process, the Emotional Wellbeing Coordinator will send the person a link to complete a brief online form. This additional information is required by the Psychology Team to offer a specialist assessment while upholding safety and professional standards. See below for information on Confidentiality and how data are used and stored.

When a request for help is received by the Psychology Team, they will offer an initial appointment with the person to find out more about the emotional wellbeing concerns and agree next steps together with them, which could include:

Providing direct psychological support, for instance through further individual appointments with one of us;
Helping to identify and link in with other Better Together resources suitable for them, such as a ‘Managing Stress,’ ‘Mindfulness’ or ‘Where Now?’ group course;
Helping to identify and access appropriate sources of support outside of Better Together.

You will also be invited to complete a baseline survey to help us learn more about your current situation so that we can tailor support to your needs. Anonymised information may also be used as part of the Better Together service evaluation. This will help us develop and improve the service and demonstrate its difference to our funders.

Preparing for your first appointment

You will receive a link by email to a Teams video call with the Psychologist. If you are unable to make the date and time offered, please decline the meeting invitation, and indicate your next availability (note: the Psychology Team offer sessions during the day on Thursdays).
Please ensure you have a quiet and private space for the call, where you will not be likely to be interrupted. If, during the call, there are difficulties with internet connection and the call is cut off, the Psychologist may try phoning you on the number you provided to check you are okay. The session can only be recorded with the permission of the Psychologist.
If you need to contact the Psychologist, you can email them on the address provided with the Teams call link. Be aware, the Psychology Team will not have access to emails outside of their working hours (usually a Thursday), so there may be a delay in picking up and responding to your email.

There is no dedicated telephone number for the Psychology Team. If you need more immediate support, please contact your GP or out of hours support, if necessary, without delay.

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.