Psychological professions

As an Alliance, we are committed to supporting NHS colleagues to learn more about genomics and its relevance to their area of practice.

Over recent months Holly O'Dea, Workforce Development and Health Education England Liaison Lead engaged with psychological professions across the North West, and it has become apparent that many disciplines and workforce groups interact with genomics in some way, but where there is currently no bespoke education and training available.

One group which stood out was the clinical psychology workforce and some of the wider psychological professions. Holly has met with a number of clinical psychologists across the North West to get a better understanding of how they interact with genomics and what training (if any) they would benefit from.

The range of professionals includes those supporting the following types of patients:

• ·Patients undergoing risk-reducing surgery due to a genetic change that increases their risk of breast cancer
• ·Families with inherited cardiac conditions
• ·Patients experiencing trauma due to losing a family member with a particular genetic condition.
• ·Patients experiencing feelings of guilt due to passing on a genetic condition to their child
• ·Families with neuropsychological conditions with a genetic basis
• ·Patients with genetic conditions that have a behavioural phenotype
• ·Patients with other conditions with a possible genetic basis that may require some psychological support

There are many other examples of clinical psychologists working closely with genomics and in some Trusts, they are employed directly within the Clinical Genetics team.

All the clinical psychologists interacted with had received no genomics training and agreed that this is something they would benefit from, even if it was just having an awareness of their local genomics service and how to contact them for further information and advice. It is therefore evident that there is a genomics training need for clinical psychologists as well as the wider psychological professions.

Genomics education for psychological professions webinar

We would really value your feedback on our first 'Genomics education for psychological professions' webinar which was held on 29 November 2022,  as it will inform education and training materials moving forward.  Please complete our feedback form, via this link.  

We regularly hold webinars via Microsoft Teams, so we'd value your feedback on any future events and topics that you would like to see covered.  To share your thoughts, please click here to complete our quick 60 second survey. 

This page will be updated with relevant education and training materials but also visit other pages within our education and training resources section.