Psychological therapies for cancer patients

We accept referrals for people with cancer whose main treatment is at our hospital.

We see people up to 1 year from the end of their treatment.

We'll see you for you for up to 5 years after the end of cancer treatment if you:

• are being seen by our psychosexual service
• take part in our fear of cancer recurrence group programme
• take part in any of our other end of treatment groups

We also accept referrals for:

• complicated grief after death from cancer of a person under the care of our palliative care service. This is when grief is so long lasting and severe that you have trouble recovering from the loss and resuming your own life
• our specialist family therapy service. We see children who are 16 and under and have a parent or guardian with advanced cancer. We see the parents or guardians first, and won't see a child on their own before deciding on the next steps

Self-referrals

You can make a self-referral:

• at our reception
• phone 020 7188 5919
• email [email protected]

You have access to psychological support through your main treatment team if you are under the care of our:

• skin cancer service
• gastrointestinal and hepatological cancer service
• teenage and young adult (TYA) support service

Referrals by a health professional

You can also ask the team treating you to make a referral.

Your GP or health professional can request a referral form by emailing [email protected].

Before making a referral, health professionals must:

• talk about how psychological therapy may be helpful
• get consent

Please contact us first if you're unsure whether the person you want to refer meets our criteria.

We'll need these details for anyone referred for support who is not the cancer patient:

• GP
• date of birth
• address

How we process referrals

We send an opt-in letter for routine referrals explaining what happens next. If we can't do this, we'll call you. If we don't hear back in 28 days, we'll discharge you from our service.

We'll contact you within 2 weeks if the referral is considered urgent. We'll consider the referral urgent if 1 or more of the following apply:

• suicidal or a risk to others
• likely to die within 6 months
• beliefs or distress interferes with accessing cancer treatment
• anticipatory grief (grief felt before a death)

We'll contact within 2 weeks if the referral is urgent. You will not need to opt-in.

We are not an emergency or crisis service. You can find out more about emergency support for mental health problems.