Community Paediatric Psychology Service

What is the Community Paediatric Psychology Service?

We see children and young people when there are concerns around their development or if they already have a
diagnosis of a developmental condition (such as autism or a learning disability).

Clinical Psychologists focus on behaviour, emotions and development. Children or young people with developmental conditions can experience some challenges in managing their emotions and behaviour.

Our service aims to help families to understand and manage these difficulties.

What we can do

• We can assess developmental conditions (such as autism or a learning disability).
• We can complete neuropsychological assessments which can help others understand a child or young person’s strengths and difficulties.
• We can support a parent/carer’s understanding of specific behaviours.
• We can share ideas to try to reduce the occurrence of specific behaviours.
• We can share ideas to try to reduce a young person’s experience of anxiety or low mood.

What we cannot do

• Clinical Psychologists are not able to prescribe or make recommendations about medication.
• Our service does not assess specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyscalculia.
• If your child’s difficulties only present within school, it would be best to discuss these concerns with education staff.

What happens next?

We will post out an “opt in letter” when you reach the top of our waiting list.

You need to phone Rainbow House when you receive this letter to let us know that you would like an assessment appointment.

If you would like an appointment you will be asked to complete a questionnaire before the first appointment to help us understand the challenges you and your child may be experiencing.

At your first appointment we may see you and your child together or individually. The first time we meet with you we will talk to you about your child’s development, school, daily activities, mood and things that are going well, to get a clearer picture of how things have been.

We will use this information to decide if further appointments will be useful, and then discuss with you how we can work together to help. We may also ask you or your child to complete some diaries, tests or questionnaires to give us some extra information.

Follow up appointments are arranged as appropriate. We will discuss how your child is progressing. We are likely to suggest different approaches or tasks that we will ask you or your child to carry out between sessions. This is an important part of supporting your child.

Where you can find us

The Community Paediatric Psychology Service is based at Rainbow House in Irvine but covers the whole of Ayrshire and Arran. We have clinics in Kilmarnock, Ayr, and Largs. If necessary, we can arrange to visit some families at home.

Appointments

What to expect from an appointment with us

Children and young people are mainly referred to us:

• For further assessment of their development.
• For support due to concerns about their emotional wellbeing or behaviours.

We offer different types of appointments depending on why your child has been referred. As a team, we make a decision about which is the most appropriate type of appointment based on the information we receive.

How to prepare your child for an appointment with us

It can help some children to know what to expect when they are coming for an appointment. Below are some key points that could be helpful to share with children and young people before the appointment. There are also some resources that could be helpful.

• Show them a picture of the team so they can see who they may be meeting. You can find these pictures in our “Meet the Team” section below.
• Letting them know we do lots of talking. We do not do any medical things like take blood, or measure blood pressure.  
• During the appointment we ask about things children and young people are good at and things they might find tricky.
• During appointments we sometimes play games and puzzles
• View our easy to read leaflet that may help explain the appointment 
• The “Hospichill app” has different suggestions and activities to help children and young people who might feel anxious about attending appointments

Meet the Team

We are a team of psychologists including Clinical Psychologists, Clinical Associates in Applied Psychology, Trainee Clinical Psychologists and Assistant Psychologists. We all have different work patterns so not all clinicians are available every day. We all complete assessments across Ayrshire. If we are going to be doing a longer piece of work together you will likely work with the clinician who spends most time in your area.

We sometimes have Trainee Clinical Psychologists, who work in our team. These are people who are training to become Clinical Psychologists and receive supervision from a qualified Clinical Psychologist.

We also sometimes have an Assistant Psychologist, this is someone who has qualified to assist Clinical Psychologists in their various roles and may be working towards becoming a Trainee Clinical Psychologist.

FAQ

How do I / my child get a referral to the Community Paediatric Psychology Service?

We work across all of Ayrshire and Arran. If you have concerns about your child’s development, behaviour or emotional wellbeing, it can be helpful to discuss these with a GP, a named person within the school or a Paediatrician if your child is under regular review. We work with children and young people when there may be concerns around their development or they have experienced a head injury/medical treatment. Sometimes when children and young people are experiencing emotional difficulties their needs are best met by another local service, for example the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Your child’s GP, named person or Paediatrician can help to decide which if our service is appropriate for your child.

Are all appointments in Rainbow House?

The Community Paediatric Psychology Service is based at Ayrshire Central Hospital in a building called Rainbow House. Although our base is in Irvine we cover the whole of Ayrshire and Arran. We have clinics in Kilmarnock, Ayr, and Largs. If necessary, we can arrange to visit some families at home.

My child attends Rainbow House, why don’t they get appointments with a Psychologist?

There are a lot of teams based within Rainbow House, such as Paediatricians, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Psychologists. We all have separate referral criteria. We only see children and young people who require specialist assessment or support for their difficulties. If your child meets with another team and you think they need psychological support you can discuss your concerns with them and they can help guide you and your child to appropriate support.

Telephone number: 01294 323070

Email: aa-uhb.clinical-rainbowhouse@aapct.scot.nhs.uk

Resources

• Understanding development conditions (pdf)
• Understanding behaviour (pdf)
• Eating difficulties (pdf)
• Helping children to manage big feelings (pdf)
• Sleep (pdf)
• Anxiety Management (pdf)
• Understanding difficult early experiences (https://beaconhouse.org.uk/resources/)
• Information for parents and carers leaflet (pdf)

How to contact us

Community Paediatric Psychology
Rainbow House
Ayrshire Central Hospital
Kilwinning Road
Irvine
KA12 8SS

Telephone number: 01294 323008 or 01294 323072
Email: aa-uhb.Clinical-rainbowhouse@nhs.net

If no-one is available to take your call, please leave a message on the answer phone. We look forward to meeting you and your family in the near future.

Confidentiality

The information you share with a psychologist is confidential. The exception to this would be if we felt someone is at risk then we have a duty to share this with the relevant professionals. If it was felt to be useful, we would ask for your consent to share any information about our contacts with those working with the child/young person.