Somerset Gardens |
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CLINICS
Special clinics and facilities for your health and treatment Children's Immunisations / Child Health Surveillance Tuesday - eight weeks check 1.00 - 3.00pm with doctor and health visitor. Appointment necessary. Baby clinic with nurse 1.00 - 4.00pm. Appointments necessary. Diabetic Clinic Held every Friday, 9.00am to 12 noon and Monday afternoon. Asthma Clinic Held every Tuesday morning and Friday afternoon. All acute cases will be seen during any surgery. Midwives In attendance every Monday during the afternoon for antenatal care. Dietician Our qualified dietician attends on Friday mornings for the multi-disciplinary diabetic clinic. Appointments are available via the receptionist. Phlebotomy (blood taking) Held every Wednesday and Friday morning at 9.00 to 10.30am Travel Clinic We can provide advice plus vaccinations, most of them without prescription, including Yellow Fever. Minor Surgery Including wart clinic, once a month. Family Planning The nurse/doctors offer several forms of contraception including:
More information about the implant can be found at the website of the family planning association - www.fpa.org.uk. Nurse Specialist - Women's Health This is comprehensively covered and includes pre-pregnancy counselling and all forms of contraception, as well as women's checks and cervical smears. Other nurse clinics include coil fittings and emergency contraception. Physiotherapy A physiotherapy service is offered on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. A wide variety of acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions, from spinal pain to soft tissue injuries, can be advised upon or treated. Referrals must be obtained from your GP beforehand. Diabetes Team This team comprises a dietician, a psychologist/counsellor and a footcare assistant. Psychological Therapy at Somerset Gardens Introduction
We live in a complex, busy, changing world, where there are many different types of experience that are
difficult for people to cope with. Most of the time we get on with life, but sometimes we are stopped in
our tracks by an event or situation that we do not, at that moment, have the resources to sort out.
Most of the time, we find ways of dealing Psychological therapy at Somerset Gardens is available for patients who are registered at the surgery and have mild to moderate psychological or mental health problems. The service started in 1992 with one part-time counsellor. Shirley Akgun, consultant specialist in psychotherapy, manages the psychological therapy service at Somerset Gardens and has undergone specialist trainning in cognitive analytic therapy. There is also one part-time psychodynamic counsellor. Somerset Gardens is a training practice with several honorary therapists working at the surgery for a minimum of two years. This has widened the provision and the range of psychological therapies available. These include generic and person-centred counselling, psychodynamic and integrative counselling along with cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), which are explained in some detail below. Patients can access this service by being referred by their GP or a member of the primary mental health team at Somerset Gardens. An assessment session is offered and from there an appropriate therapy will be identified and regular sessions set up. Cognitive Analytic Therapy This involves a therapist and a client working together, looking at what has hindered changes in the past, in order to understand better how to move forward in the present. Questions like: "Why do I always end up feeling like this?" become more answerable. CAT is safe and user friendly, being widely applicable within a variety of settings and across a range of disorders and difficulties - such as depression, anxiety, personal and relationship problems. People often wish they could change things to make life more manageable, but don't know where to start. Unhappiness, depression or anxiety can make them feel less capable of finding a way out of their difficulties. CAT focuses its attention on discovering how problems have evolved and how the procedures devised to cope with them may be ineffective. It is designed to enable clients to gain an understanding of how the difficulties they experience may be made worse by their habitual coping mechanisms. Problems are understood in the light of clients' personal histories and life experiences. Then, mobilising each client's own strengths and resources, plans are developed to bring about change. The work is active and shared. Diagrams and written outlines are worked out together to help recognise, challenge and revise old patterns that do not work well. Agreed insights are noted in documents, which become tools for use within, outside and beyond the duration of therapy. In this way, clients gain skills to help them manage their lives more successfully and to continue using after therapy ends. Psychodynamic Therapy (Analytical Psychotherapies) This form of therapy is based on psychoanalytical ways of understanding human development and is derived from psychoanalysis and the work of Freud and his successors. The therapy concentrates on unconscious conflicts and explores the person’s inner world, as well as their external situations. It is a model that uses psychoanalytic concepts to explain human growth and development, and the nature of psychological problems. Psychodynamic counselling uses the therapeutic relationship to gain insight into unconscious relationship patterns that evolved since childhood. Memories and other evidence of early relationships are used to make sense of current concerns. The process of change occurs as clients become more aware of the power of the unconscious, including defence mechanisms, instincts and rules for life, to influence behaviour, and hence more able to control their actions and responses. Counselling The term ‘counselling’ covers a wide range of skills and techniques. Counsellors may, for example, use cognitive or behavioural techniques. In the main, however, it provides a supportive and non-judgemental atmosphere for people to talk over their problems and explore more satisfactory ways of living. Counselling generally deals with specific life situations and is shorter term than analytical psychotherapies - in Somerset Gardens there are usually from 6-16 sessions. It is generally used for less severe problems. Anxiety Management This approach involves a varying mixture of behavioural strategies to help people with anxiety problems. The strategies commonly include education about the nature of anxiety (eg 'fight or flight' response), recognising hyperventilation, the slow-breathing technique, relaxation training and graded exposure. Stress management, assertiveness training and structured problem-solving may also be included, depending on the training and background of the therapist and the needs of our patients. Problem Solving Structured problem solving can help patients sort out and deal with stresses that contribute to worry and depression. It involves encouraging the patient to identify specific problems, to order them in terms of importance and then to focus on one problem at a time, writing down potential solutions and identifying specific steps that they might take to implement the solutions. A main aim is to assist people to incorporate the principles of efficient problem solving and goal achievement into their everyday lives. The aim is not for the clinician to solve the patient’s problems for them but to give them skills so that they can effectively overcome problems and achieve goals for themselves. Self-management is a key goal, with the clinician adopting the role of teacher or guide. Shirley Akgun Consultant Specialist in Psychotherapy, Somerset Gardens Family Health Care Centre April 2010. Minor Ailment Scheme Approved pharmacists participating in this scheme can give you advice and treatment on any of the following conditions. You do not always need to see a doctor.
The scheme encourages doctors and pharmacists to work in partnership and gives patients the option to consult an approved pharmacist for advice and treatment of minor ailments. In order to access the service please speak to your doctor's receptionist who will advise you further. The benefit of this scheme means that you will get help sooner. Should the pharmacist feel your condition warrants a GP's advice, you would be referred back to the surgery and told how soon you would need to see a GP. The service is available to all patients and is free to those who are exempt from prescription charges. However, if you normally pay for your prescription you will continue to do so. If you wish to highlight any problem with the scheme, or have any complaint about any part of the service, please ask to speak to the practice manager who will then feed back your issues to the Pharmacist Development Manager at NHS Haringey. |
with such problems in living by talking to family, friends,
neighbours, priests or our family doctor. But occasionally their advice is not sufficient, or we are too
embarrassed or ashamed to tell them what is bothering us, or we just don't have an appropriate person to
turn to. Therapy can be a really useful option at these moments and is a distinctive activity
undertaken by people seeking help. Therapy can only take place when someone who is troubled invites and allows
another person to enter into a particular kind of relationship with them.
