Psychological Service for Specialist Palliative Care
Our service
The Psychological Service supports patients who are living with a life-limiting illness and during end-of-life care, as well as their families. This includes children, young people, adults, couples and whole families in order to help the patient and everyone who is important to the patient harness positive ways of coping with all the thoughts, feelings and changes that serious illness and dying can bring.
The service uses the skills of trained counsellors as well as a small team of volunteers who provide listening support in bereavement. The bereavement service is more limited service and our aim is primarily to work with our colleagues in the voluntary sector in order to signpost people to services in their local area.
We work mainly at the Priscilla Bacon Centre, in Norwich, and sometimes at other health centres in the Norwich area. In some circumstances, we can see people in the own homes. We work on weekdays between 9am to 5pm and our volunteers work some evenings.
We also provide:
- Support, supervision and education for the staff in Specialist Palliative Care
- Events and materials to promote public and professional awareness across Norfolk of the psychological needs of patients and their families during illness, end-of-life care and bereavement
- Research, audit, evaluation and service development
- Advice, consultancy and education to other organisations working with people of any age, including children, young people, couples and families, who are affected by life-limiting and life-threatening illness, end-of-life care and bereavement.
Who we care for
All ages, End of Life / Palliative Care.
Patient must be accessing or have accessed Specialist Palliative Care Services.
Referrals
You may contact us yourself, but we will also need to have a referral from a healthcare professional, such as a member of staff at the Priscilla Bacon Centre, your hospital consultant, a community nurse, or your GP.
Useful links
Help with health costs
If you're referred to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests by a doctor, dentist or another primary care health professional, you may be able to claim a refund of reasonable travel costs under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS). Find out more about the HTCS.
How to have your say
A guide for friends and family carers about ways to help us improve the experience of receiving care from our Service.
How to have your say leaflet