Clinical health and neuro psychology services

We provide clinical health psychology and neuropsychology services within the acute hospitals at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple.

Our trained clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, assistant psychologists, and mindfulness practitioners are often based in inpatient rehabilitation centres, multi-disciplinary medical teams, or in community services.  They are linked to other services such as counselling, our TALKWORKS service and our Liaison Psychiatry service.

Clinical health psychology

Clinical health psychology refers to the specialism of applied psychology for people who have acute or chronic long term physical health conditions. People are seen on both an inpatient basis on the medical wards, as outpatients when still under medical consultant care, or in community-based health and social complex care teams.  Areas of service where we provide our service include pain management, renal medicine and kidney units, respiratory medicine and cystic fibrosis services, oncology, obesity and endocrine services, and general medicine. 

Clinical neuropsychology

Clinical neuropsycholgy refers to the application of psychology to neurological conditions such as acquired and traumatic brain injury (such as head injury and stroke), neurodegenerative disease (such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Motor Neurone Disease), epilepsy, functional neurological disorders, and other disorders, diagnosed by consultant neurologists.

Neuropsychologists specialise in aiding neurological diagnosis through neuropsychological assessment, providing input and support to medical multi-disciplinary teams to assist the rehabilitation and management of people with complex neuro-behavioural presentations, and in assisting people using the service and families with coming to terms with long-term neurological disorder.

Referring to our service and how we can help

Collaboration Matters

We are supported by a network of people who have used our services called Collaboration Matters. The aim of the group is to ensure the experiences of those who use are services are instrumental in shaping our services. This is part of the wider 'Together' appraoch within Devon Partnership Trust.They work with us to promote their involvement and experience. Currently this involves collaboration with staff recruitment, questionnaire design for feedback, and the organisation of team days.

If you want further information about Collaboration Matters or to get involved in developing Clinical Health Psychology and Neuropsychology Services, please ask for our leaflet. Your therapist will also be happy to talk with you about getting involved in developing our services vai Collobaration Matters.

What types of therapies are available?

What therapy you will be offered will depend on your needs, the service you have been referred to and the clinician available. Not all types of therapy are available in all services. Most of the therapies we do in clinical health psychology and neuropsychology are individual therapies. Some services run groups.  Because all our services run slightly differently, it is not possible to say which type of therapy you might be offered. 

What they have in common is that you will work with your therapist to understand and better manage your emotions (and in some cases physical symptoms). Some therapies are more focused on changing what you are doing in your life, and others are more about understanding yourself. Your therapist will be happy to explain how you might benefit from the type of therapy you are being offered. If you want to know more about the type of therapy you are offered, just ask, we will have additional information available, maybe a website or a leaflet, or just a more detailed explanation.  

End of therapy

At the end of the contract period there will be an opportunity to review the progress made. It is unlikely that you will be offered any more therapy time but advice will be given to you, your GP and other  professionals about any ongoing support you may require.