Clinical psychology in the diabetes service

What is a clinical psychologist?

Clinical psychologists help children, young people, and their families in hard times. We are here to help you to make changes for the better and listen to your concerns.

We are not medical doctors and so do not prescribe medicines or do any physical examinations. We are part of the team that work in diabetes, which includes doctors, nurses, and dietitians.

What can we help with?

People with diabetes see us for lots of reasons, such as:

• Dealing with the diagnosis of diabetes
• Difficulties with eating, or eating the right diet
• Dealing with treatment procedures and regimes that can be difficult to cope with
• The effects of diabetes on the family
• Worries, fears, and phobias
• Worries about school
• Physical problems
• Difficult past experiences
• Dealing with the future
• Relationships with family and friends
• Worries about feeling ‘different’
• Dealing with uncertainty
• Low mood
• Bullying or teasing

This involves working together (things done with you) so will be a little different to other care in the hospital (things done to you).

What sort of help will be offered?

This will be tailored to suit your needs. It may be working with parents, the whole family, or with the young person alone. We will keep parents regularly informed of progress if we see a young person  alone.

How long will I be coming for?

Your first session will be an assessment where we choose how many sessions are needed to make the changes you want. Normally, up to 5 sessions will be given, with one further session to see how things are. If more sessions are needed, we can arrange this later on.

Will our discussions be confidential?

As clinical psychologists, we have strict rules about confidentiality and do not discuss your difficulties with anyone other than the doctor or team who referred you, and your GP. If we feel it would be helpful to discuss or pass on information to anyone else we will ask you first.

We have a responsibility to protect children from harm. We are legally and morally bound to give any information regarding children at risk of abuse or harm to relevant agencies.

What will happen at the first meeting with your psychologist?

The first meeting will take the form of an assessment. We aim to find out a little about you such as who is in your family, how you are feeling about school, and what your interests are. We will also ask what you are struggling with and find out the strengths you have to solve them. As part of this, you will also have the chance to find out if we are the right people to help you.

At the end of the assessment, we can plan the next steps together to help solve your difficulties.

The first meeting is expected to last 1 to 1.5 hours and up to 1 hour for the other meetings.