Psychological Services

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Contact information

Email

psychological.services@mpft.nhs.uk

Psychological services are provided across by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust across South Staffordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, North Staffordshire (primary care, IAPT and physical health psychology and in our Inclusion Services, which include substance misuse, primary care IAPT and prison healthcare across the UK. Read more about psychological services below.

What are psychological services?

Psychological services provided directly to service users, families and carers include: assessment, formulation (a tailored description of the needs of an individual, couple or family), advice, sign-posting, guided self-help, computerised therapy, telephone support, face-to-face talking therapies (individual, couple, family, group), and community psychology.

Psychological services provided indirectly to service users, families and carers by supporting the quality of what other staff deliver include: advice, consultation, supervision, training, research, health promotion, clinical leadership, anti-stigma work, and service development.

Psychological services are provided by specialist psychological practitioners, including clinical and counselling psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists and family therapists, psychological well-being practitioners, trainee clinical psychologists and assistant psychologists.

Psychological services are also provided by other professionals, such as occupational therapists, nurses, social workers and psychiatrists who have been trained in psychological approaches. However, it is recognised that there is a psychological element to every contact that all Trust staff have with each other, as well as with service users, families and carers.

Our specialist psychological services are provided:

across South Staffordshire
across Shropshire
across Telford and Wrekin
in North Staffordshire (Primary Care, IAPT and Physical Health Psychology)
in our Inclusion Services which includes Substance Misuse, Primary Care IAPT and Prison Healthcare across the UK.

Psychological services are provided directly to children, adolescents, young adults, older adults, people with physical health needs, people with learning disabilities, people with substance misuse problems, and people who have committed criminal offences. The indirect psychological services mentioned above are provided to other Trust staff, GPs, other health and social organisations, education providers, commissioners and members of the public.

All of the Trust's psychological services are embedded within the Clinical Directorates; there is no separate stand alone psychological services department.

In order to receive psychological services, please follow the information provided by each of the Clinical Directorates.

For many adults (18 and over) first contact with Psychological Services is made through our Primary Care, Talking Therapies. You can self-refer to these services, as well as seeking a referral from your GP.

For children and young people under 18, direct access to services is also available through our CAHMS service.

If you would like to access a service, but are unsure which service is right for you and how to access this, please discuss with your GP.

Research evidence, national guidelines and service user preference all strongly support providing psychological services:

Patient information

You might also be interested in accessing Self Help material and information about different kinds of psychological difficulties.

Self help information for children and young people under 18 is available in our CAMHS section.

We encourage all who live within Staffordshire and Shropshire to consider enrolling in our Wellbeing and Recovery College.

College courses are free to all, whether you have or might use our services, care or support someone who has health needs, work within our services, or are a member of the public interested in health and wellbeing.

All courses are produced and delivered in training partnerships with one trainer having personal experience and one having professional knowledge, both relating to the subject area.

All courses have a shared learning focus, aimed at enhancing health and wellbeing and are delivered in local community. For more information, please visit the Recovery College page.

Information for professionals

The Trust has a primary link with the Shropshire & Staffordshire Doctorate in Clinical Psychology Programme (based at the University of Staffordshire). We employ two thirds of the trainees from this programme and provide clinical placements for all the programme trainees across the Trust.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

The Trust provides a formal training course on Interpersonal Psychotherapy Training.

Post-graduate Diploma in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (PgDip CBT)

The Trust, in partnership with the University of Staffordshire, also provides a Post-graduate Diploma in Cognitive Behaviour Training meeting the requirements of IAPT High Intensity working.

As a Trust, we receive a very large number of enquiries from a range of people interested in receiving information, guidance or work experience in relation to a possible or planned career in psychology, psychological therapy or counselling.

Due to the number of enquiries, we are unfortunately not able to reply to all the needs and requests fully on an individual basis. However, we like to try to be as helpful as possible, within the time and resources available to us, to people making such enquiries, particularly as they are the future workforce for serving people with mental and physical health needs and learning disabilities.

To this end, we would like to direct you to what we hope you find to be helpful information under the Useful Resources section below.

We would like to make you aware that we advertise all of our volunteer work opportunities via the NHS Jobs website.

We welcome feedback on our information and resources. Please contact Psychological Services via e-mail to psychological.services@mpft.nhs.uk.

The Trust offers Work Experience opportunities (up to two weeks duration) for those at school who are 15 years old. Although we are unable to offer psychology specific work experience, generic work experience within an NHS Trust is invaluable in preparation for a career in psychology. For more information, please visit the Work Experience page.

Likewise the Trust offers volunteering opportunities. We are unable to offer psychology specific volunteering, but the Volunteer team will try to accommodate your interests where possible. For more information, please visit the Volunteering pages.

As psychology under-graduate and post-graduate work experiences are rarely possible, we encourage you to consider employment within Health Care Assistant and Support Worker roles as well as Assistant Psychology posts. A broad understanding of Health Services and NHS working is beneficial in broadening your CV as part of preparation for a career in psychology and preparing for Applied Psychology courses. Posts are advertised on the NHS Jobs website.

Useful resources for people wanting to become a clinical psychologist

Books

Beinart, H., Kennedy, P. and Llewelyn, S. (2009) Clinical Psychology in Practice. Wiley-Blackwell
Cheshire, K. and Pilgrim, D. (2004) A Short Introduction to Clinical Psychology. London: Sage
Davey, G., (2008) Psychopathology: Research, Assessment and Treatment in Clinical Psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
Francis, R.D. (2004) Becoming a Psychologist. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hall, J. and Llewelyn, S. (2006) What is Clinical Psychology? Oxford: OUP.
Knight, A., (2002) How to Become a Clinical Psychologist: Getting a Foot in the Door. Routledge
Page, A.C. and Stritzke W.G. K., (2006) Clinical Psychology for Trainees: Foundations of Science-Informed Practice. Cambridge University Press

Journals/Newsletters

British Journal of Clinical Psychology
Clinical Psychology Forum
Health Service Journal

Websites

Aspiring Psychologists Resources

Aspiring Psychologists Information Pack
Aspiring Psychologists Webinar Recording - Please note that the presentations for the DClin course are unfortunately not available to view within the recording of the webinar

Psychological Services

On this page…

Contact information

Email

What are psychological services?

Who provides psychological services within the Trust?

Where does the Trust provide psychological services?

Who can use psychological services?

How can I receive psychological services?

Primary care psychology

Why are psychological services important?

Patient information

Self help

Wellbeing and Recovery College

Information for professionals

Training in psychology

Other psychological therapies training

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

Post-graduate Diploma in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (PgDip CBT)

Working and volunteering in psychology

Work experience

Volunteering

Useful resources

Books

Journals/Newsletters

Websites

Aspiring Psychologists Resources

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