Clinical Psychology Department
We offer psychological support as part of treatment and rehabilitation plans and can help you adjust to your injury or illness. This is available to you if you are a patient in the Aged Care, Spinal or the General Rehabilitation wards.
We do this by:
- Assessing your psychological and cognitive abilities
- Assessing your capacity to make decisions
- Offering treatments for a wide variety of psychological problems
- Offering psychological support to family members
- Providing psychological education and information to patients and their families
- Working with the other health professionals on your health care team to develop your treatment plan while you are in hospital and to help develop a plan for when you go home.
We also offer a limited outpatient service as part of the Cognitive Disorders Clinic.
We are a team of registered Clinical Psychologists and Clinical Neuropsychologists who offer assessments and treatments across a wide variety of psychological and cognitive issues.
- Clinical Psychologists offer assessment and treatment of psychological conditions such as adjustment to illness or injury, trauma, depression and anxiety.
- Clinical Neuropsychologists offer assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive conditions such as dementia, brain injury and stroke.
Our primary partners are the other members of your health care team especially those within the rehabilitation wards. When planning for your return home we work in partnership with your local general practitioner (GP), Prince of Wales Hospital and Community Health Services, non- government rehabilitation and support services and private community psychologists.
As an inpatient of the Aged Care, Spinal or General Rehabilitation wards, you can ask your nurse or any member of your treating team to make an appointment with a psychologist.
When you see one of our team we will explain what assessments or treatments we can offer you and we will ask for your consent before proceeding with any treatments. Psychologists use a wide range of assessment and treatment protocols to help people adjust to their injuries, deal with such issues as anxiety and depression, cope with declining memory and mental functioning and support your in-patient stay and rehabilitation.
Please let us know if you need an interpreter. You can contact us telephoning the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) on 131 450. Tell the operator what language you speak and then ask the interpreter to set up a telephone conversation between you, an interpreter, and the healthcare professional you want to speak with.
We are a teaching hospital and you may be asked to be involved in research or a student to be present at your appointment. You have a right to say no. If you do so, this will no impact in any way on the services we will provide.