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Mental health support offered to young patients with brain tumours at Oxford Children's Hospital

28/10/2024
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) has joined forces with charity Tom's Trust to provide a new clinical psychology service for young patients facing a brain tumour diagnosis.

Working in hospitals across the country, Tom's Trust clinical psychologists support hundreds of families, helping children and young people from diagnosis, through their treatment, and as they return to life at home.

The paediatric neuro-oncology service at the Children's Hospital in Oxford is the Principal Treatment Centre (PTC) for the Thames Valley region - reaching Swindon, Milton Keynes, Slough, Wycombe, Reading, and areas of Northamptonshire. 

Tom's Trust has funded a new clinical psychologist to exclusively support the needs of children and young patients with brain tumours, and their families. The Tom's Trust post will triple the team’s current capacity for direct clinical work, and they expect to be able to offer an additional 300 appointments to children with brain tumours and their families each year. The clinical psychologist will also be there to support a family if their child is dying, or has sadly died from this devastating disease.

Dr Jeni Tregay, Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychologist at OUH, said: "Our current service sees many of the children and young people in our region diagnosed with a brain tumour but, like many similar services, we have no dedicated funding for neuro-oncology meaning that we are often unable to provide the depth of psychological support and intervention that we would like or the timely re-assessment and follow-up that these children need.  

"With the new Tom's Trust service, we will be able to increase both the depth and breadth of psychological care that patients and their families receive. The new service will provide greater capacity for psychological intervention at an individual, family, and group level that we hope will help families to feel better supported through treatment and afterward. We also aim to offer proactive neuropsychological 'check-ins' with some more vulnerable families so that we can address concerns sooner, and work toward better quality of survival once treatment ends."

Dr Emily Townsend, who started this week in the post of clinical psychologist, said: "I'm really excited to start this new role at OUH, and am very grateful to Tom's Trust for providing this opportunity.

"Diagnoses of brain and central nervous system tumours can have substantial and wide-reaching impacts on both the young person and those close to them. As part of this role, I look forward to providing one-to-one support to young patients and their families, with a consideration of current treatment as well as the longer-term impacts this may have.  I look forward to carrying out psychological and cognitive assessments, and using this information in developing personalised care pathways, as well as in my work with schools to support and ease reintegration."

Dr Shaun Wilson, Deputy Divisional Medical Director for Children's Services and Paediatric Oncologist at OUH, said: "We are incredibly grateful to Tom's Trust for enabling this much-needed post.  Children who have cancer are vulnerable, but particularly so in the case of brain tumours, so any additional support offered is extremely welcome.

"This post will allow us to make the service more robust, and allow us to hopefully expand clinical and research projects."

Lisa Glynn, Director of Clinical Services at OUH, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity, and we’re excited to work with Tom's Trust to provide this incredibly valuable service.

"This post goes a long way to supporting our Trust's aim of continuing to provide excellent, compassionate care, with holistic support for patients and, just as importantly, their families at what is often an incredibly challenging time for them all."

Pictured left to right: Emily Townsend, Tom's Trust Clinical Psychologist; Dr Jeni Tregay, Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychologist and Lead Psychologist in Paediatric Neuro-oncology; Mel Hayes, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Paediatric Neuro-oncology; Helen Blundell, Lead Nurse for Paediatric Haematology and Oncology; Dr Shaun Wilson, Deputy Divisional Medical Director for Children’s Services and Consultant Paediatric Oncologist; Mr Tim Lawrence, Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon.



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