Sickle cell disease and thalassaemia are chronic conditions, which have profound medical and psychosocial implications across the life span of affected patients and their families. Our psychological services are comprehensive and complement medical treatment that patients receive. The framework is to provide services that are:

• Hospital and Community Based
• Age Appropriate - i.e. Paediatric, Adolescent, Adult
• Evidence Based

Psychological services are integrated as part of the routine care offered to patients and families with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia. We routinely assess all patients attending the outpatient's clinic using a battery of standard psychological screening tools. We also fully assess patients before they are offered any psychological intervention in the hospital or in the community. Follow-up of patients and families in the community is an essential part of our services, especially when they do not present in the hospital.

The main objectives of our interventions are to:

• Alleviate suffering resulting from severity of symptoms including pain

• Decrease psychological distress by addressing emotional problems
  
• Increase coping ability through learning of appropriate and effective strategies
  
• To help with adherence to medical treatment
  
• Improve overall quality of life

Our psychological services include:

• Psycho-educational group work for children and adolescents
• Individual cognitive behavioural therapy sessions for all patients
  
• Problem-solving therapy for carers
  
• Consultation and liaison service for neuropsychological and educational concerns
  
• Self referral and drop in service
  
• Referrals to other psychology services and agencies
  
• Training of other health and allied professionals
  
• Ongoing research and development

For more information about our psychological services, click here.