Getting a diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) can bring lots of emotions and questions. Your local MND team is there to make sure you have the right support.

Everyone referred to the MND team will be offered an appointment with the team psychologist. This is a chance to talk through your adjustment to the diagnosis. You can also learn more about the help we offer.

There are two main ways that meeting with a psychologist may be helpful for people living with MND.

A psychologist can help to manage the emotional effects of the diagnosis

A diagnosis such as MND can affect life in many different ways. People can feel that daily life, work, relationships, and plans for the future have changed. Many people describe lots of emotions, such as worry, grief, anger, fear and sadness. These emotions are very common, but may sometimes feel hard to manage.

Psychological therapies can help find ways to cope with these emotions. We can support thinking about what is important to you when making choices e.g. about your care.  We can also help if depression or anxiety becomes a problem.   For some people, a one-off session can be enough to help you move forward. For others, you may have a number of sessions to work on specific goals.

A psychologist can also help to assess and manage cognitive changes

Some people with MND notice changes in their thinking skills (cognition) or behaviour. The most common changes that people might experience are in:

  • Attention and concentration
  • Taking in information
  • Planning, organising and making choices
  • Motivation
  • Having sudden emotions, or noticing you react differently in social situations

It can be useful to know about these changes, so that the MND team can make sure that we give you information, (e.g. about treatment options) that is easier for you to understand and make use of.

We can offer you an assessment to help measure cognitive symptoms that might be due to MND. A cognitive assessment involves paper and pencil or spoken answer tasks. These tasks help show problems with thinking skills.

If there are problems the team may offer sessions to help you and the people around you to learn the best ways of managing them.

The first appointment

If you decide you would like to see the team psychologist, your first appointment will be a chance for you to meet with one of our Clinical Psychologists or Clinical Neuropsychologists. The appointment will last around an hour. You are welcome to bring a relative or friend with you. The appointment may take place via phone or video calling. Or, we may see you at one of our community venues. This will depend on your needs and preferences.

Before your appointment, we will send you some questionnaires to fill in – you can ask someone you know to help with these. Please have these with you for your first appointment. Your answers to these questions help us to see how MND may be affecting your mood, anxiety, and general wellbeing.

We will then agree a plan together about the support that will be most useful. This may include one of the following

  • Cognitive assessment, followed by discussion about the outcome. We will also offer information and advice on managing cognitive changes, if any problems are found.
  • Support with the emotional impact of your health condition. This might include problems with  low mood, anxiety, stress, and coming to terms with the effect that MND may be having on your life. We may agree a specific number of sessions to work on this.
  • We may decide no help is needed just now. We will leave you with contact details for us so that you can call or email to arrange to be seen again if anything changes in the future

Physical Health Psychology:

The Coppice, Carleton Clinic, Cumwhinton Drive, Carlisle CA1 3SX

01768 245954| PhysicalHealth.Psychology@ncic.nhs.uk

Website: https://php.cumbria.nhs.uk/

Confidentiality

‘The Trust’s vision is to keep your information safe in our hands.’ We promise to use your information fairly and legally, and in-line with local and national policies. You have a right to understand how your information is used and you can request a copy of the information we hold about you at any time.

For further information on confidentiality contact the Information Governance Team:

Information.Governance@ncic.nhs.uk | 01228 603961

Feedback

We appreciate and encourage feedback, which helps us to improve our services. If you have any comments, compliments or concerns to make about your care, please contact the Patient, Advice & Liaison Service:

pals@ncic.nhs.uk | 01228 814008 or 01946 523818

If you would like to raise a complaint regarding your care, please contact the Complaints Department:

complaints@ncic.nhs.uk | 01228 936302