Psychological Services – Acute Inpatient Care, St George’s Park – Patient information leaflet

This leaflet tells you about what support is available from psychological services on Alnmouth, Warkworth, and Embleton wards.

Psychological services are made up of:
– Clinical Psychologists
– Psychological Therapists
– Art Psychotherapists
– Assistant Psychologists

Psychology helps people understand and cope better with lots of different issues. We do not give out medication.

Your issues may include:
– Feeling anxious or worries
– Relationships with other people
– Feeling angry
– Hearing voices
– Thinking of killing yourself
– Feeling sad

We can help you think about problems you have and talk about things that might help. We can work with you on your own, or you can come to a group session.

We will spend time getting to know you.

This might be during a one to one appointment or within a group meeting.

You can tell us what you would like help with.

We might ask you questions about things you are worried about.

We will help you understand where and how your problems developed.

We will work together to think about things that might help you.

Sometimes members of the psychology team will be responsible for leading your care.

Art Psychotherapists help people think about and express their feelings by using different kinds of art.

Art can help you express feelings that you might find hard to talk about.

Making a piece of art can help you understand yourself and your past experiences.

You don’t have to be good at art to have a go.

Art therapy can be done on your own or in a group.

If you want to try art therapy you can ask the ward staff who will plan for someone to come and meet you.

Groups

– Psychological services help run groups on the ward.

– Groups help you learn ways of managing your feelings.

– You can listen to other people talk about their experiences which may help you to think about your own life.

– Groups are helpful because you can learn and practice skills with other people.

– You can ask your key nurse or activity co-ordinator about groups on the ward.

Family Meetings

Working with you and your family can be an important part of your recovery.

Psychological services can help you communicate and meet with your family.

Supporting Staff

Psychological services work closely with the ward staff to help support you

We also complete research projects to help develop effective interventions

We evaluate our services to improve them

Here are things people have told us about what they found helpful from psychological services:
“My confidence has grown.”
“Improved wellbeing, less stressed as someone knows the extent of problems I face daily.”
“Just that I had someone on my side for a change.”
“Having someone to confide in about frustrations and problems I face.”

Everything you tell us is kept confidential.

This means we only share information with other people involved in your care.

If we are worried about you or someone else we would share information with people involved in your care.

Before breaking confidentiality we would try to talk to you about this first.

If you have any questions about this you can ask the people who work with you.

When you are close to being discharged, we will develop a summary of the work you have completed with us.

This summary, helps us work alongside community services once you leave hospital.

If you want to make a comment, suggestion, compliment or complaint you can:
• talk to the people directly involved in your care
• ask a member of staff for a feedback form, or complete a form on the Trust website www.cntw.nhs.uk (click on the ‘Contact Us’ tab)
• telephone the Complaints Department 0191 245 6672
• email [email protected] Please note that information sent to the Trust via email is sent at your own risk
• We are always looking at ways to improve services. Your feedback allows us to monitor the quality of our services and act upon issues that you bring to our attention.
You can provide feedback in the following ways:
– the quickest way for you to do this is to complete our short online survey at www.cntw.nhs.uk/poy
– complete a Points of You survey, available from staff.

Self help leaflets – Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
www.cntw.nhs.uk/selfhelp

Mindfulness support and app
www.calm.com

Substance use support
www.talktofrank.com

Understanding voice-hearing
understandingvoices.com

Crisis support and suicidal thoughts
www.samaritans.org

Further information about the content, reference sources or production of this leaflet can be obtained from the Patient Information Centre.

This information can be made available in a range of formats on request (eg Braille, audio, larger print, easy read, BSL or other languages). Please contact the Patient Information Centre Tel: 0191 246 7288

Published by the Patient Information Centre
2020 Copyright, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Ref, PIC/788/1120 November 2020 V2
www.cntw.nhs.uk/pic Tel: 0191 246 7288
Review date 2023