Starship Paediatric Consult Liaison Psychiatry

The Consult Liaison Child Psychiatry team provides psychological and emotional assessment and support to tamariki and rangatahi who have medical or surgical problems and their whānau. It is located on level three of Starship Children’s Hospital.

The types of problems they can help with include:

• Adjusting to, and coping with, illness or injury
• Emotional and/or behavioural problems in a child with illness or injury
• Treatment adherence problems e.g. fear of needles, special diets, difficult treatments
• Management of complex pain in children and adolescents
• Feeding difficulties
• Parental and whānau difficulties coping with a child’s illness especially where the illness or treatment is challenging or complex
• Grief and bereavement counselling related to a child’s illness

 They offer a range of interventions including:

• Assessments
• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Child therapy and counselling
• Family therapy
• Medication
• Neuropsychological assessments

The team consists of:

• Child Psychiatrists
• Clinical Psychologists
• Neuropsychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Nurse Specialists

This service liaises closely with the child’s Starship medical or surgical team and also with any other involved service e.g. General Practitioner, School, Physiotherapist or Special Education Services.