Psychology

The Psychology Department presently consists of a Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist (part-time) and a Clinical Neuropsychologist (part-time) serving the Adult Division and a Paediatric Neuropsychologist (part-time) together with two Behaviour Support Advisors working within the Learning and Skills Division.

Adult Division

The Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist and the Clinical Psychologist work with adults attending the Assessment Unit and the College as well as those who are resident on-site and in the community.

The service includes neuropsychological assessment and advice regarding coping with epilepsy (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy), behavioural analysis and behavioural management programmes for conditions associated with epilepsy. These often include psychiatric disorders, learning difficulty and challenging behaviour.

The service provided depends both on the individual need of the client and their reason for attending the Centre.

In addition, contributions are made to training, research and audit.

Learning & Skills Division

The Consultant Paediatric Neuropsychologist provides on-site neuropsychological assessment and intervention advice in regard to behaviour and learning for children within the division. An outreach consultation service is provided to Primary Care Trusts primarily within the North-West and Midlands areas, focusing upon the complex interactions between epilepsy, learning disability, behaviour and medications. Training on epilepsy, learning and behaviour is provided both internally and externally to a range of audiences from the general public to post-graduate students.

The primary focus of the Behaviour Support Advisors is to provide an individual referral based service to support care and classroom staff in managing the challenging behaviour presented by a proportion of the children attending both The David Lewis School and College. Central to the process is the creation of Behaviour Management Guidance, which is incorporated into the young person's Individual Placement Plan and is then reviewed and modified as necessary. Behaviour Support Advisors also contribute to admissions panels, policy formation, revision of recording systems, training and audit.