Paediatric Clinical Psychology - Who are we what do we do

Who we are? 

Dr Kirstin Sharp and Dr Jenny Wright are Clinical Psychologists working in child health at the Borders General Hospital. 

What is a Paediatric Clinical Psychologist? 

A Clinical Psychologist has been trained to understand how people think, feel and behave. We aim to help children, young people and their families cope with some of the difficulties that can come from a medical condition or treatment. We are slightly different from other Clinical Psychologists that work elsewhere in the Borders as we are focussed on helping in relation to health, symptoms and illness. 

Clinical psychologists are not medical doctors and so do not prescribe medicines or do any physical examinations. They just listen and talk. 

We are part of the child health department alongside the doctors, nurses and other health professionals in the hospital. 

What we can help with 

Children or young people (and their families) with a health condition or medical symptoms can sometimes have lots of different feelings or worries which can be difficult or distressing. It can be difficult managing treatment alongside everyday activities, and it is normal to have times of difficulty with this. 

We help children and young people deal with worries, illness and medical treatment. 

We see people who are having all sorts of difficulties. The list below is just some of the problems we can try and help with. 

• coping with treatments a child may feel worried or stressed about- e.g. dealing with needles and blood tests, taking tablets, having surgery. 

• helping with any decisions about treatment 
• managing symptoms such as pain, tiredness and other physical symptoms and body changes 
• dealing with the effects of a medical condition on life such as at school or with friends 
• dealing with feelings about having a medical condition 

Other people that we see say that it can be helpful to meet someone who is aware of the medical issues but is separate from treatment to discuss issues. Sometimes it is also helpful to have a person outside the immediate family for a child to be able to talk to. 

There is no stigma to seeing a psychologist. We are an integral part of the medical teams and the reason we are there is that it is normal to find managing some medical conditions demanding at some point. Seeing a psychologist also does not mean that your child symptoms are not believed or not real. That is not the case, we always believe your experience, our role is simply to help you cope. 

If you would like to meet us you can let any of the health professionals working with you that you would like to meet us. 

An introductory meeting would entail an appointment at a place convenient to you (either BGH or local health centres) for about an hour and when we can discuss how things are going. We would probably discuss feelings, behaviour, managing treatment, impact on lifestyle and any other problems. We would also discuss strengths and look for areas of resilience that we can help build on to assist coping. 

We can either decide that it would be beneficial to meet up further to help with a particular problem, or it can be a one-off appointment just to let you know about who we are, and you can ask to be seen again in the future if you wish later. 

We use EMIS electronic records so our entry about our appointment is typed in the electronic file. Our conversations are confidential so all information is not shared with others automatically, other than the written electronic record will be visible to others. The only exception to this is if we are ever worried about any harm we may have to speak to others if we are worried about any safety issues. 

We do usually write a letter to the paediatricians and a copy to GP when we have met someone just to briefly let them know of our involvement. Any shared information with other people will be discussed first with families for consent. 

If you would like to meet us please let any of the other health workers that you would like an appointment and they will let us know.