UCLH @ Brandon – Onwards

Once you’re referred to our service, you will receive a phone call to organise your first appointment and answer any questions you may have for us. Once a date and time is agreed, you will be sent an appointment letter by email.

You will then be sent an email and text reminders prior to your appointment.

You may also like to set up a MyCare UCLH account so you can access appointments, clinic letters and more. More information can be found via MyCare UCLH : University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and/ or speaking with our administrator.

When you arrive at Brandon Centre you will see the reception on your right. They will know you are coming and show you where to wait for clinic.

We want to get to know you and give you the care and help you need. To help to do this, we will give you a sheet with some quick questions on it to fill in whilst you are waiting.

The first appointment:

One of us will come and get you from the waiting area.

A doctor (an adolescent medicine specialist) will see you and they will have another member of the team with them. This could be a youth worker, a physiotherapist (PT), an occupational therapist (OT), clinical nurse specialist (CNS) or a psychotherapist. Everyone has different knowledge and skills and we all work together to give you the best treatment we can.

We will explain everyone’s role and reason for being there at the start of the appointment.

We will talk to you about what we do, check you understand what is going to happen and explain what happens to the information you tell us. We will make a plan about what happens next, this could include occupational therapy, youth work, psychotherapy, counselling, physiotherapy, and CNS support.

We then talk about what the issue you came to see us about is, what your symptoms are and explore what that means for you, and what is important to you.

If you have come to the appointment with a parent or adult, we always ask to see you alone as well. This is an important part of caring for you as you go through adolescence.

If you want to leave, then you are allowed to at any time.

If you have any questions, then please do ask us.

After your appointment:

We will summarise what happened in a letter and send it to you in the post, or by email. We will check if you want us to do this before we do it.

We will make a plan all together about what happens next.

After your visit, we would really appreciate your feedback so we can improve our service

• Explore physical and mental health concerns
• Organise tests and investigations
• Recommend treatment / prescriptions as appropriate
• Medical assessment /review
• Refer for further specialist input when needed
• Support with lifestyle changes
• Help to improve health & wellness
• Youth worker support
• Physiotherapy and occupational therapy support
• Help getting into school regularly / training / employment.
• Emotional wellbeing support
• Support with understanding what makes you feel better and worse.
• Help to improve sleep
• Help to improve and manage the symptoms you’re experiencing

What happens if I miss my appointments?

We always try to find out why you have missed an appointment to see if we can help for next time. Missed appointments also increase the waiting time for other young people to be seen so always let us know if you can’t make an appointment so we can offer it to someone else.

Isn’t the Brandon Centre just a sexual health clinic?

Brandon centre offers a range of services. They have previously been well known for its Sexual health services but that was just one of them. Our service provides specialist holistic health and wellness care for young people in a community setting.

Confidentiality, Consent and Data: What does it all mean?

Confidentiality: In simple terms, this means keeping things secret. For example, if a doctor saw a celebrity, we couldn’t tell anyone they were there or what they came in with.

There are two times when we are allowed to tell people outside our team about something you have told us:

1. If you tell us something that means we think you could be harmed (such as telling us someone hurts you, or that you are hurting yourself)
2. If you tell us something that means someone else might get hurt.

We would always tell you before we passed on the information to social care.

When we meet you, you can also tell us what you want your parents to know, and we can support you if you wish to talk to them about difficult topics.

Consent:  This is giving your permission for something to be done to you.  For example, the doctor can’t examine you without your permission. You can say no. Healthcare professionals should explain why they think seeing or examining you is important, so you can decide whether you want it to happen.

When you come to see us in clinic, we will write notes about you. This helps us communicate with the right people to ensure you get the best care. We discuss things about you as a team so that we give you the right care.

Data: Your notes and records are kept on the UCLH computer system. When we try to make the service better, we sometimes look at people’s records to see if we gave them good treatment or could do better.

If you are referred to the counsellor, at Brandon centre, or any of the other services offered by Brandon, then we write your details about your name, date of birth, address, phone numbers, GP details and a summary of the reason we are referring you.  This then goes into Brandon centre system which is under the same data protection laws as UCLH.  You can ask not to be referred to this team; agreeing to referral is an agreement to this information being sent to the Brandon centre team.

When we review our services to try and improve things, we take names and identifying numbers away so we cannot tell who each person is. This data helps us plan how to make the service better in future.

You can change your mind about any of the above. As health records are a legal document, any information we already have about you will not be deleted. If you withdraw your consent, we won’t add any new information to your record, and we will talk to you about what that means for your care.

To make a complaint about how we have used your data, or to withdraw your consent, please contact UCLH.IGQueries@nhs.net

Brandon Centre
26 Prince of Wales Road
Kentish Town
NW5 3LG

Phone number to call or text: 0797 706 5966
Email: uclh.adolescentserviceatbrandon@nhs.net

Brandon Centre website has a directions tool – go to https://brandon-centre.org.uk/contact-us to use it.

• Trains: Kentish Town West
• Tubes: Kentish Town, Camden town and Chalk Farm (all northern line)
• Buses: C2, 46, 134, 214

Please note that the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) OnWArd pilot at the Brandon Centre will be coming to a close on the 31st March 2024. This is due to a lack of sustainable funding at the present time.

We will no longer be able to accept new referrals to the OnWArd Hub, as there will not be adequate time to support new patients before the pilot service comes to an end.

If you were intending to refer a child or young person, please redirect your referral to their GP or local General Paediatrics service, via the e-referrals system.

If you are a child or young person who was accessing the OnWArd service, please see a list of resources below that you may find helpful. Additionally, if you require further support in future, please contact your GP who will be able to advise you and consider a referral to alternative services.

The inbox uclh.adolescentserviceatbrandon@nhs.net and phone number 0797 706 5966 will not be routinely monitored from 31^st March, so for any further queries or support, please contact uclh.paediatricsgeneral@nhs.net.

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recognise the value that the OnWArd model brings to patients and how it helps to improve inclusion and integrated health and are currently exploring options of how to replicate this service model within the Trust’s services for young people and continuing to seek a sustainable solution to deliver this new model of care.  They would value your feedback on this model of care via the following links:

If you are a patient: https://forms.office.com/e/0W2TQiWqfY

If you are a referrer: https://forms.office.com/e/DuJHFAge4R

“How to refer to our service for healthcare professionals”

Please note that the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) OnWArd pilot at the Brandon Centre will be coming to a close on the 31st March 2024.

If you were intending to refer a child or young person, please redirect your referral to their GP or local General Paediatrics service, via the e-referrals system.

Referral criteria:

• 13-18 years old (adolescents outside of this range may be accepted at the clinician’s discretion)
• Living or studying in Camden or Islington
• Where clinician feels they need extra support for a symptom or collection of symptoms that are causing concern and having an impact on their life.
• They have physical symptom/s
• Where other referral criteria may not be met (eg CAMHS) or would be traditionally suitable for general paediatrics, but an MDT would enhance the care because it is thought to be more complex on a social or mental wellbeing aspect.

Please contact uclh.adolescentserviceatbrandon@nhs.net for further information on how to submit a referral.