Prof Isobel Heyman

Dr Isobel Heyman is a consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and an Honorary Professor at the University College Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health . She is an Affiliated Professor at the University of Cambridge.

She is child psychiatry clinical co-lead for Cambridge Childrens Hospital [IH1] development project – a new hospital which will for the first time fully integrate physical and mental health care. 

She and her teams see some of the most unwell children each week, in her clinics in Cambridge (where she is a consultant in the Psychological Medicine Team at Addenbrookes Hospital) and London (where she is an Honorary Consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children).

Her service focuses on children with combinations of physical and mental health problems – especially functional/medically unexplained symptoms. She usually works with a small team including clinical psychology. Details of her team can be found at Mind and Body London.[IH2] 

Her research (over 200 publications), [IH3] clinical practice, teaching, leadership and strategic advice are recognised nationally and internationally.  Expertise includes neuropsychiatry, integrating physical and mental health, epilepsy, Tourette Syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder and enhancing care of children and families in all of these areas.

She received UK Royal College of Psychiatrists ‘Psychiatrist of the Year’ award in 2015, her Psychological Medicine Team at GOSH was awarded CAMHS team of the year 2018,  and her drop-in mental health project won British Medical Journal ‘Mental Health Team of the Year’ award in 2021. She was awarded an MBE in 2023 for Services to Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Her current aims are to promote and deliver parity of esteem between physical and mental health, detect and treat mental health problems in children with long term conditions and intervene early with evidence-based treatments to prevent progression/deterioration, treat the child or young person in line with NICE guidance, raise public awareness and decrease stigma, undertake translational research and increase access to psychological therapies.

Dr Heyman works closely with a team of experts – other child and adolescent psychiatrists and specialist clinical psychologists.

The specialist services currently offered by Dr Heyman and her colleagues are for children and adolescents with physical symptoms who are distressed or having difficulties with day-to-day life.

This may be because their symptoms are stopping them doing things they would like to be doing. Or they have emotional or behavioural problems in the context of physical ill-health. They may have functional symptoms (symptoms that are not caused by a serious underlying disease).

Dr Heymans multidisciplinary approach ensures that she and her colleagues will arrange consultations with additional Great Ormond Street professionals as needed in your individual case – including paediatricians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists etc.

The emphasis is on individual assessment and meeting the needs of each child and family. We will make telephone contact before arranging the assessment to sure that our range of services best meets your needs. A key aspect of successful outcomes is to involve all the services needed for regaining good quality of life, and we will liaise with your local services, school and other colleagues as needed.

If following assessment treatment is requested and needed, we may be able to offer this. An ongoing package of treatment will always include us working closely with a local team of professionals.

https://www.cambridgechildrens.org.uk/ 

]Mind and Body London - Psychiatry & Psychology Service  

]Isobel Heyman Publications | University College London (ucl.ac.uk)