Psychological professions are one of the central staff groups in mental health, learning disabilities, neuropsychology, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and, increasingly, physical healthcare services in the NHS. To understand service users’ healthcare needs holistically and optimise outcomes, we need a bio-psycho-social approach. Psychological Services contribute to this by providing specialist psychological assessments and interventions, including, but not limited to, psychological therapies.

Psychological professionals also support the wider workforce by working with colleagues through training, clinical supervision and consultation to promote psychological understanding and interventions across pathways. Psychologists and other psychological professionals are also skilled in service development, facilitation of change, service evaluation, clinical audit, and Research and Development (R&D).

The Specialist Psychological Services (SPS) provide community and in-patient psychological services to healthcare teams based in locations across NELFT and partner Trusts.

Currently, the service comprises:

• Clinical Health Psychological Services
• Adult Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Service
• Learning Disabilities Service - page under development
• Neuropsychology Service - NELFT internal referral service only
• Older Adults Psychological Services - page under development
• Families and Systems Service - Page under development