The North Tipperary Child and Family Primary Care Psychology department provides assessment and intervention to young people aged 0-17 years and their families who are experiencing emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or mental health difficulties of a mild/moderate nature.
Assessment entails clinical interviewing of the parent(s) and child, observation of the child possibly in their school environment and in the clinic, use of psychometric questionnaires and/or testing and liaison with other health professionals. Following the assessment process, an agreement between the clinician, parent(s) and child will be reached about the identified difficulty requiring intervention along with possible factors that may have contributed to it and that appear to be maintaining it based on psychological theories which should indicate the route for intervention. This is termed ‘formulation.’
Most psychological intervention with young people adopts a systemic approach which means working with child and the system around them (e.g. parents and school) to support them to reach their full potential. Different psychological theoretical models of intervention may be applied depending on the clinician’s training and what is indicated in the formulation including behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, narrative and attachment-based interventions. Some clinicians adopt an integrative style which means a combination of approaches. Sometimes ‘manualised’ interventions will be offered for which clinicians have attended specific training and have been certified to deliver such as the Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P) group intervention. A combination of child only sessions, parent(s) only sessions and joint sessions will likely take place as well as liaison and meetings with other relevant parties/professionals. The aim of talk therapeutic intervention is to help children/ young people and their families to understand the links between their thoughts, feelings, behaviour, environment and experiences in order to develop an understanding of why they are experiencing the identified difficulty and express any strong feelings they might have in a safe way, with the aim that the emotional impact on them will not be as great. The therapy provided by a Psychologist also aims to help the young person find ways of coping with their emotions that are helpful for them going forward with the support of their parents. There is no set number of sessions for intervention but the initial goals and progress towards them are reviewed regularly.
Target Group: Young people aged 0-17 years and their families who are experiencing emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or mental health difficulties of a mild/moderate nature.
Referral: Referral by GP and other Health professionals; by Secondary Care HSE multidisciplinary teams such as CAMHS, Disabilities Services; and by NEPS and Túsla.