What is the service?
With the help of funding from LINC and from Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Haematology Psychology Service provides a dedicated and integrated psychology service to the haematology team in Gloucestershire. We are a small team of two clinical psychologists – Dr Nicky Dobbin and Dr Ashley Dawson.
We offer a range of emotional support to people who have experienced or are affected by a haematological cancer and this includes supporting patients and their families / carers to prepare for, and cope with, the psychological impact and demands of bone marrow and stem cell transplants. In addition to direct work with patients and their families, we also support the haematology team and other health care professionals to provide physical health care in a way which recognises and meets the psychological and emotional needs of patients and families. We have both spent a minimum of six years training before qualifying and are trained to understand thoughts, emotions, behaviours and relationships.
Psychologists are not the same as psychiatrists, who are medical doctors trained to treat mental illness and we do not prescribe medicine or admit people into hospital.