Psychological Medicine Team referral criteria

The Psychological Medicine Team provides a specialist (tier 4) outpatient service for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children and young people with Tourette syndrome.

Our assessment provides a mental health opinion, which may lead to specific investigations and/or treatments. We provide services that cannot ordinarily be delivered by a district hospital or community child and adolescent mental health/emotional wellbeing and mental health service (CAMHS/EWMHS) because of their unusual, complex or specialised nature. We accept referrals of children from all over the UK.

Due to pressures associated with COVID-19 restoration and increased demand for our services in the context of the Pandemic, we have had to review and revise our referral acceptance criteria. As a result of this review, we are currently only able to accept referrals which meet the three following criteria:

1) The patient must be open to and referral made by the patient’s local Child and Mental Health Service (CAMHS), and it must be sent by a CAMHS Consultant Child Psychiatrist, Consultant Clinical Psychologist or a Consultant Community Paediatrician.

2) The patient must be presenting with tics in the moderate-to-severe range of severity. We require a detailed description of how the child’s tics impact their life socially, physically, educationally and / or emotionally.

3) The patient must have already received an intervention for tics within local CAMHS, with difficulties persisting despite this intervention and / or a clinician from the referring team is available to join the initial assessment with the Psychological Medicine Team. We are able to offer these initial assessments via telemedicine.

In addition, the Psychological Medicine team is not currently accepting referrals for patients with a primary diagnosis of persistent physical symptoms (e.g. functional neurological disorder) in the absence of tic disorder.

Psychological Medicine Team
Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Level 4, Frontage Building
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street
London
WC1N 3JH

Alternatively please email CAMHSSecretaries@gosh.nhs.uk or telephone 020 7405 9200 ext 5778

In order to process a referral to the Psychological Medicine Team at GOSH, we require the following minimum information:

• name and details of patient including NHS number (if applicable), current GP and local lead medical consultant
• whether an interpreter for the child / or family is required
• please include, if relevant, details about social services involvement and parental responsibility

• reason for referral such as diagnostic, second opinion or referral for treatment
• details of previous child mental health opinions and treatments
• referral letter with current information and referral question

• Any relevant test results, including MRI, EEG, blood, urine, CSF and genetics
• Other relevant assessments (e.g. cognitive assessments, speech and language assessments, etc.)

Referrals will not be processed until other relevant assessments and investigations have been received.