WillisPalmer has a team of highly trained and experienced psychiatrists available to provide high-quality assessments and reports to local authorities and the courts throughout the UK. Our psychiatric services is able to assess both children and their families, providing recommendations and advice.
Where Our Psychiatrists Can Help
Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Autism is a lifelong developmental condition which affects how people communicate and interact with the world. One in 100 people are on the autism spectrum. Certain therapy can help children with autism including play and behavioural therapy.
Capacity
Mental capacity means being able to make your own decisions. Someone lacking capacity - because of an illness or disability such as a mental health problem, dementia or a learning disability – cannot understand information given to them about a particular decision, retain that information long enough to be able to make the decision, weigh up the information available to make the decision or communicate their decision. Psychiatrists often are called on to provide an opinion to the court regarding a person's capacity.
Depression
Depression is a low mood that lasts for a certain period and affects your everyday life. Mild depression can mean being in low spirits. It doesn't stop you leading your normal life but makes everything harder to do. Severe depression can make you feel suicidal.
Eating Disorders
An eating disorder is an unhealthy attitude to food, and can include under eating, binge eating or making yourself sick after meals. Treatment varies depending on the type of eating disorder, but will usually involve some kind of talking therapy.
Fitness to Plead
Fitness to Plead is a fundamental concept of criminal justice and relates to a defendant’s ability to understand and participate in the legal process, a prerequisite to a fair trial. The assessment of fitness to plead is carried out by psychiatrists and determined by a judge. Our psychiatrists can carry out Fitness to Plead assessments.
Forensic Risk
Forensic risk assessment aims to predict the likelihood that an individual will commit a violent or anti-social act. WillisPalmer has experienced and highly trained forensic risk assessors to carry out this work.
Neglect
Children and young people who have experienced neglect during childhood are at an increased risk of experiencing psychiatric disorders and can benefit from assessments which can ascertain the extent of the problems.
Parental Mental Health
Children of parents with severe mental health problems experience greater levels of emotional, psychological and behavioural problems than children and young people in the rest of the population. Psychiatrists can therefore help with assessments.
Personality Disorders
A person with a personality disorder thinks, feels, behaves or relates to others very differently from the average person. There are several different types of personality disorder. Treatment for a personality disorder usually involves a talking therapy, which WillisPalmer can assist with.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Trauma
PTSD can affect anyone who has been through a harrowing experience, who has been abused or tortured, or who knows someone who this has happened to. There are both psychological and physical aspects to PTSD, so there are both psychological and physical treatments for it including psychotherapy or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. We have experienced professionals who can carry out these treatments.
Our psychiatrists can carry out assessments of children and families and offer recommendations. We also provide a range of therapeutic interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Family Therapy, Theraplay and Art Therapy. See our therapy services for more detailed content.
Our psychiatrists can carry out assessments of children and families on behalf of local authorities and courts, providing recommendations. We also provide a range of therapeutic interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Family Therapy, Theraplay and Art Therapy.
Therapeutic interventions
Art therapy
Art therapy is an arts-based activity within a therapeutic setting with the help of a trained therapist. It is a type of psychological therapy that uses art to enable the individual to express their thoughts, feelings and emotions. While it can be used with adults and children, it is often beneficial for children who may find it difficult to voice their emotions and feelings.
Play therapy
Play Therapy uses play and creative arts to help children with mild, moderate or chronic mental health problems which may be affecting their behaviour and are hindering children in reaching their full potential.
When it is decided that a child would benefit from play therapy, a trained therapist will carry out sessions with the child in the short to medium term depending on the severity of the problems presented to the therapist.
The therapist will also take into account the child's wider social network including siblings, family, school and peers.
Theraplay
Theraplay is used for children and families and is primarily used to boost self-esteem and enhancing attachment. It aims to build strong family connections and emotionally stable and resilient bonds.
Four essential qualities are used during theraplay: structure, engagement, nurture and challenge. Sessions aim to create an emotional connection between the child and their parents or carers. The therapist works the parents and child through fun games and developmentally challenging and nurturing activities. Engaging in sessions helps parents and children to connect and engage with one another which can enhance communication and tackle challenging behaviour.
Systemic therapy
Systemic Family Therapy, which has its roots in family therapy, is used in particular when a child or adult experiences mental health problems and when there may be complex distress. The therapist works therapeutically with individuals and families as well as the wider family network to reduce stress and problems for all family members.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a therapeutic intervention or talking therapy whereby a trained therapist enables an individual to express their feelings and gain a deeper insight into problems they are experiencing.
Psychotherapy aims to help people explore different ways of thinking to find better ways to cope in a bid to improve mental health and wellbeing. It is often used with people experiencing mental health problems or emotional problems such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or eating disorders.
A psychotherapist will meet the individual and discuss the problems they are experiencing. They will carry out an assessment of the individual and devise a plan as to how many sessions of psychotherapy are required to address the problems presented.
Behavioural therapy
Behavioural therapy is often used to treat merntal health problems and aims to identify and change what can be seen as self-destructive, unhealthy behaviour. The principle of behavioural therapy is that behaviours are learned and can be changed. This psychotherapy intervention does not involve one specific method but has a wide range of techniques that can be used to treat a person's psychological problems.
Cognitive behavioural therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is a common method of treating anxiety and depression and works by addressing the way an individual manages their problems and changes behaviour as a result. CBT works on the principle that thoughts, feelings and actions are inter-connected. When problems become overwhelming, the individual can become trapped in a vicious cycle of negative thoughts and CBT works by breaking the problems down into smaller, more manageable parts.
Life story work
Life Story Work is a social work intervention involving children or children and adults which aims to recognise where they come from, their past experiences, current situations and the future. Children and young people who are in care or adopted may have little understanding of why they don't live with their birth parents and why they are in care which can impact on their self-worth and self-esteem.
Solution-focused therapy
Solution-focused therapy is a form of psychotherapy which looks at solution building rather than problem solving. It is a time-limited approach to enable individuals to use their current resources to address their future aspirations. The therapy acknowledges present problems but focuses on solutions.
Family therapy
Family therapy, also known as systemic psychotherapy and which is a type of psychotherapy, aims to address issues within a family setting. A therapist works with families and those in close relationships to enable them to understand the problems they may be experiencing and support them to communicate better with each other in a bid to resolve conflict.
Quality Assurance
A key principle of WillisPalmer is to promote and protect the welfare of children. Therefore, we strongly believe that a rigorous quality assurance process is central to this aim. We invest heavily in a robust system to ensure reports are comprehensive, focused on the needs of the child and provide a detailed response to instructions.
WillisPalmer has recruited a team of Quality Assurance Consultants to quality assure all reports before they are filed with the instructing party. The QACs have been personally selected by the chief executive because of their significant experience in both undertaking specialist reports, and managing the quality of reports over many years.
This means that you can have peace of mind that not only has the report been carried out by an experienced and highly trained professional, but that this work goes through a further process to ensure it is of the highest standard, meets the needs of the instructing clients and - above all - is child-focused and centres around the needs of the child or children.
Who are our psychiatric services for?
A wide range of organisations can benefit from the services we provide. this includes;
- Local authorities
- Courts
- Independent organisations
- Residential homes
Why is this important?
One in 10 young people has some form of diagnosable mental health condition and half of all mental health problems are established before the age of 14. Early intervention can prevent problems escalating and have major societal benefits.
However, cash strapped local authorities have had to scale back their early intervention services to focus money on child protection and crises and with thresholds to CAMHS so high, many children are missing out on the help they need. In fact, research by the Education Policy Institute found that over a quarter of referrals to specialist children’s mental health services were rejected in 2018-2019 due to high thresholds.
The wider economic costs of mental ill health in England are estimated at £105bn each year and it is therefore imperative that children and families can access high quality psychiatric services.
