News

Thame Music Therapy is a community-focused therapy practice aiming to enhance the existing network of inclusive support for children, young people and adults in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. 

Music therapy is a creative, engaging and flexible form of therapy. Through a combination of talking and accessible music-making (improvisation, song writing, musical games) to form a positive working rapport, music therapy aims to support mental health, well-being and personal development. 

The benefits of music therapy can include:

– enhanced communication and self-expression

– emotional containment and reduced anxiety

– developed awareness of self and others

– improved listening skills and capacity to share

– increased focus and concentration span

– more flexible and creative play

Thame Music Therapy is run by Hugh Anderson, an HCPC-certified music therapist with 15 years experience within mainstream, SEN and SEMH education settings. Hugh is also Head of Therapies for the organisation Resources for Autism. He has worked with a wide range of autistic individuals and people living with ADHD. 

Contact Hugh directly on info@thamemusictherapy.co.uk 

Find out more @ https://thamemusictherapy.co.uk/

A local Oxford resource, “Perspectives Psychological services”, are launching a series of “Nurturing Neurodiversity” workshops and small groups for people with neurodevelopmental conditions.

For further information, please visit https://www.perspectives.me.uk/service/neurodiversity-workshops/

Please be aware that this being led by an external organisation and we are unable to provide additional information ourselves.

Adult assessments

Our adult waiting list for ADHD and Autism assessments is now open!  Please use the contact form on the website (https://www.oxfordadhdcentre.co.uk/contact/) to send us your initial enquiry, providing your name and which assessment you would like.  We will then send you the relevant registration forms to complete in order to add you to the list.  We anticipate enquiries to be quite busy, so please bear with us if takes a couple of days to respond to your message.

Children’s assessments

Please be aware that at this stage only our adult assessment service is reopening i.e. for clients aged 18 and over.  Our children’s assessment waiting list remains temporarily closed at this time and we will provide another update when it can reopen.  The waiting list backlog for our children’s assessments is still significant but with a new clinic premises now open, and additional staff joining our clinical team, we hope that this will quickly reduce the list of those waiting.  At this point in time we are not clear on when the children’s waiting list will reopen but it will not be in the next couple of months.

Mentoring service

We have sadly had to close our mentoring service as our mentor has moved on to pastures new.  We will be contacting those already waiting for mentoring to offer alternative colleagues within the service.

Coaching service

Our coaching service is also temporarily closing, as our coach works through a backlog of patients already waiting.  We hope that this will be a short term closure and will also update our website and facebook page when it reopens.

We thank everybody for their patience and understanding during this incredibly busy time.

We are sorry to announce that we have made the decision to close our waiting list for adult autism assessments.  Demand has been unprecedented in recent months and the waiting list is extremely long.  Unfortunately our capacity to conduct adult autism assessments has also dropped and it is not sustainable nor fair to our patients to keep the list open.

If you are an adult already on the waiting list for an autism assessment, or combined ADHD and autism assessment, you will remain on the list and we will contact you in due course when we are able to book you in.

Please be aware that the clinic waiting list remains open for adult ADHD assessments.

Thank you to all the families who have been so patiently waiting for our children’s assessment waiting list to reopen.  It has been a very frustrating and challenging time all round and we are sorry we could not reopen the list any sooner.

We are pleased to say that as of Monday 24th January 2022, the waiting list for children’s assessments will reopen.

If you would like your child to be added to the waiting list, rather than calling the clinic, please could you email us at office@oxfordadhdcentre.co.uk on or after 24th January.  This will enable us to obtain your email address and reply with the relevant information and registration forms you will require, far quicker than by calling us.  In your email, please advise:

• The name and age of your child
• Which assessment type you believe your child requires (i.e. ADHD, Autism or both)
• If you are not sure which assessment is most appropriate, just let us know.

Please note that although we are reopening the waiting list, we do still have a significant number of patients to book as a result of the unprecedented demand we saw over the last year.  Therefore, we would like to make it clear that although the waiting list size has reduced, there is still at least a 5 month waiting list and so it is therefore unlikely that your child will be assessed before the start of July 2022.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time and we look forward to being able to help and support you and your family soon.

Oxford ADHD & Autism Centre will close at 5pm on Thursday 23rd December 2021 and will reopen on Tuesday 4th January 2022 at 9am.

Prescriptions

If you require a prescription over the Christmas period, please ensure that this is requested no later than 2pm on Tuesday 21st December.  Please note that Royal Mail are experiencing delays with their postage, so although we send out prescriptions by 1st class signed for delivery, we cannot guarantee how quickly they will be received at present.

Medical advice

If you are a current patient and require any medication advice, please send an email to our Meds email address, which will be monitored on 29th and 30th December only.  For any urgent matters during our closure, please contact your GP or NHS 111.

We recently posted an update to advise that we temporarily closed to all new enquiries for children’s assessments.  We agreed to review the situation in October 2021.  Unfortunately, due to reasons outside of our control, we have not made as much progress with clearing the waiting list backlog that had accrued, as we had hoped.

We therefore now plan to review the situation again in mid December 2021.

As a result of unprecedented demand on our Children’s assessment service, the Oxford ADHD & Autism Centre temporarily closed to new enquiries for children’s assessments only in August 2021.  Demand for our high-quality services has been extraordinary in the last 2 years and our waiting times have grown to lengths beyond where we are comfortable.

This was an exceedingly difficult decision to make, but it is in the best interests of all our current patients, staff, and those already waiting to be seen.

If you have already been contacted with a confirmation email to advise that your child has been added to our waiting list, then please be assured that you remain on this list and we will be in touch in due course to offer you an assessment, once your forms have been received and you come to the top of the list.

Please note that we are still open to all existing patients; and can continue to accept new patients for ADHD medication reviews, coaching/mentoring, and all Adult assessments.  This closure applies only to new children’s assessments for ADHD, Autism or combined.

We thank you for your understanding and support and look forward to being able to update you again towards the end of this year.

We have just launched the ability for existing patients to request repeat prescriptions via an online secure form.

Please visit https://www.oxfordadhdcentre.co.uk/repeat-prescription-requests/ or click on the “Repeat Prescription Requests” sub menu on the left hand side of the screen for more details and to access the form.