Psychological Health Support Group

Chair: Kate Kendell

The key purpose of the Network Psychological Support Group (NPSG) is to serve as the network’s primary source of opinion on issues relating to patients and carers psychological support and for co-ordination and consistency across the network on such issues.  Improving the psychological wellbeing of adults with cancer, as well as that of their families and carers, is fundamental to the purpose of the group and is to guide all advice given and action taken by the group.

Functions of the Network Psychological Support Group:

• To agree the training programme/s and the trainers and assessors for Level 2 practitioners;
• To ensure there are personnel available to give support to practitioners in MDTs;
• To agree the induction programme for potential Level 3 and 4 practitioners and to ensure that such practitioners receive ongoing professional support;
• Agreeing and distributing a policy on screening for patients and carers needs for psychological support;
• Agreeing and distributing guidelines, with local contact points, for referral of patients and carers for psychological support;
• Producing a baseline mapping of the network’s current service provision;
• Producing a current service specification;
• Producing a current service needs assessment, from the baseline mapping and service specification;
• Producing a service development strategy;
• Producing a training and education strategy;
• Providing information for the cancer services directory.