Psychology service for children and young people with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia

This specialist psychology service provides psychological support for children and young people aged 0 to 18 with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia and their families.

We understand that living with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia can have an impact on the overall quality of life, including school, academic progress and peer relationships. This can also affect emotional wellbeing, which may lead to feelings of worry, sadness or anger. Psychological support can enable children, young people and their families to find effective ways to manage these difficulties.

Contact us

If you would like more information about our service, please contact Dr Joanna Adebayo, Clinical Psychologist.

Email:  lg.sicklethalpsychology@nhs.net 

Who we can help 

We are available to children and young people under the care of the sickle cell and thalassemia teams at University Hospital Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. We also work with their parents or guardians, as well as other family members.

How we can help

We provide a specialist support service specifically for the range of common difficulties related to living with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia.

These include:

  • „Understanding, coping and living with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia
  • „Improving adherence to medication
  • „Pica (eating non-food items)
  • „Managing and coping with pain 
  • „Managing difficult feelings related to living with sickle cell disease or thalassaemia, such as worry, sadness or anger
  • „Neuropsychological assessments to identify and support with difficulties relating to educational attainment and progress.

 

How to get a referral

If you and/or your young person would like to see a psychologist, there are several ways that you can be referred to us. You can tell any member of the sickle cell and thalassemia team that you would like to see us, or, if you prefer, you can contact us directly.

How our service works

Support for inpatients

The psychologist is available to meet you or your young person during a hospital stay. You can discuss this with any member of the sickle cell and
thalassaemia team, if you feel this would be helpful.

Support for outpatients

You and your young person is usually invited to a psychology appointment at the hospital your young person goes to for their sickle cell or thalassemia
appointments, or we can offer a virtual appointment.

The first appointment is an initial assessment, where the psychologist meets with you and your young person. This gives us an opportunity to discuss the
referral and get a good understanding of the difficulties being experienced.

Your first appointment usually lasts around 60 to 90 minutes. Following this assessment, a joint discussion will be held about whether psychological support would be beneficial. If this agreed, you and/or your young person will be offered a number of psychology appointments, at a time that is most convenient. These appointments usually last for an hour.

We can suggest other services that may be able to provide better support to meet your needs, if psychological support from our service is felt not to be
appropriate or needed.

Sickle cell patient group

Who can join?

If you are a patient or the parent or guardian of a patient at University Hospital Lewisham or Queen Elizabeth Hospital who has sickle cell disease you are welcome to join this online group.

Aims:

  • Make connections with others who understand living with sickle cell disease
  • Gain support from psychology team members experienced in sickle cell challenges
  • Benefit from occasional visits by healthcare professionals for information and Q&A sessions
  • Share your experiences and learn from the stories of others in the group.

Download the Sickle Cell Patient Support Group Flyer

Frequent topics

  • Accessing welfare and financial support, including PIP to help with extra costs
  • Dealing with education and employment issues
  • Sharing ideas of how to live well with sickle cell
  • Keeping up to date with developments in services and how to access them
  • Working together to shape and improve sickle cell services.

When

First Wednesday of each month, 5.30pm to 6.30pm

How to join

Please complete the form at the link below and we will send you a link to join:

Sign up for the Lewisham and Greenwich Sickle Cell Patient Group