Burns and plastic psychology service - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The burns and plastic psychology service offers assessment, therapy and consultation with adults under the care of the burns and plastic surgery team who are experiencing distress in relation to an injury or illness.

Our clinical psychologists work with people who may have issues such as:

Post-traumatic stress symptoms
Adjustment to injury, disability or being in hospital
Grief
Pain management
Distress around the effects of treatment, including changes to appearance
Difficulty adjusting to diagnosis
Distress affecting treatment or recovery, such as depression or anxiety
Difficulty managing treatment or making lifestyle changes
Anxiety or phobias that interfere with treatment, for example, needle phobia
Distress linked to disability or loss of bodily function.

Our services

Our services are available to inpatients and outpatients.

Inpatients are usually seen on the ward either at their bedside or in a more private area if possible.

Outpatients can either be seen at the health psychology department outpatient department in the Royal Victoria Infirmary. You might be offered support via telephone or video conferencing.

We can also arrange to see you on the ward, or when you attend outpatient clinics or the dressings unit.

Our clinical psychologists can also see your family, friends and carers who are involved in the your care.

Carers can find some of the care for burns and plastic surgery quite challenging, so we offer to see people who would like help.

Accessing the service

We try to meet all people admitted to the hospital with a burn injury.

We do this so that we can assess whether you have any worries or concerns that might make it more difficult for you to adjust to having had a burn injury, and to provide support as required

If you are an inpatient on one of the burns or plastic surgery wards and want to discuss being referred to us, please ask one of the ward staff to get in touch with us. We will come and meet you on the ward.

When you leave the Burns Centre or one of the plastic surgery wards, you may be given information about the psychology team. This information will also be in your discharge pack if you have been an inpatient in the Burns Centre.

To talk to one of our psychologists, you can contact us on the number below or ask any member of the burns and plastic teams to contact us on your behalf.

Meet the team

The burns and plastic surgery psychology team includes:

Consultant clinical psychologist

Leads the team and will support you in the burns and plastic surgery service. They supervises staff and provide consultation to other members of the team.

Clinical psychologists

Provide support to you in the burns and plastic surgery service, and provide advice and consultation about psychosocial aspects of your care to other team members.

Clinical psychologist

Supports children, young people and families in the burns and plastic surgery service. They also provide advice and consultation about psychosocial aspects of care to other members of the team.

Assistant psychologist

Supports all the psychologists in the team. They will often meet with you during their stay at the Burns Centre, to introduce psychology and find out any difficulties you have.