Psychologist helps cancer patients and their families
THE psychologist responsible for supporting Rhondda Cynon Taff and Merthyr cancer sufferers who struggle to come to terms with their diagnosis has opened up about her role.
Rachel Criddle, a clinical psychologist based at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant, is also responsible for supporting the well-being of staff who work in cancer of palliative care within the Cwm Taf Health Board area.
Her unique post was created just over two years ago, and is funded by Macmillan – which is itself helped by organisations such as Marks & Spencer through events like the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, which took place on Friday.
She said: “My job works in two parts.
“I work with patients with a cancer diagnosis and their families, and help people who are struggling to come to terms with it, while the second part is working with staff and providing them with support and training.
“It’s a unique, busy role, but there is some structure to it. I’m based at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, and I run clinics there and at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr.
“Two days a week,
Irun a clinic where I see around five patients a day for either assessments or follow up sessions.
“One day a week, I run therapeutic group sessions with one of the other nurses. On that day I’ll have meetings in the afternoon or training and catch up with admin.
“During the rest of the week I have ward visits or a home visit or do a joint assessment with one of the nurses.” Dr Criddle also ex- plained why she wanted to get involved in this type of work, and why she feels her role is important.
She added: “I wanted to work in physical health as I liked the idea of supporting people to adjust and come to terms with their physical health problem.
“Cancer will have a massive psychological impact on a lot of people and I know that there is such a big need for help on this.
“There was nothing within the NHS that of- fered a psychological intervention in my area for cancer patients, so it’s great when professionals can refer their patients to me. They’ve now got someone to refer their patients to.”
And, the doctor said her role is still evolving and the service offered in RCT and Merthyr could be expanded.
“If we had another clinical psychologist working in the service then I could run more sessions per week and more patient groups,” she added.
“It’s still quite new and I’m still setting up the service.
“I can’t see myself anywhere else, I really enjoy the role. I’d like to develop a few more groups and run sessions for family members too.
“At the moment I can only see people affected by cancer and family members can attend, but I think there’s a need to see just family members in their own sessions.”
And, Dr Criddle said events like Friday’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning are a massive boost to the service.
She added: “I spent the morning at the M&S store in Culverhouse Cross.
“Macmillan have been able to fund my role, and they get funding with the help of M&S.
“Events like these are really important and help a lot.”