When you arrive for your assessment, you will be greeted by someone from the assessment team. They will explain what will happen both during and after the appointment, and they will answer any questions you might have (e.g. about the questionnaires you filled in before the appointment).

Typically, we speak with parents and carers separately from children/young people during the assessment. We do this because people often think about and remember things differently, and hearing two separate accounts can help us gain a more detailed understanding of young people’s difficulties and the help they need.

To make sure we get a good understanding of how things are for you, we take care not to rush our assessments. Usually, assessments last around 3 hours. Although this may sound like a long time, there will be opportunities for breaks and families have consistently fed back that the assessment process is a positive experience.

In the days after your assessment, the assessment team will discuss your assessment with a senior Clinical Psychologist in the team. The job of the Clinical Psychologist is to work out what type of difficulties you are experiencing (this may include making diagnoses), what is keeping the difficulties going, and what type of support or treatment you may need.