"I know you can recover from an eating disorder, but not in a system on its knees"

Although community-based treatment can improve outcomes for people with eating disorders, it must not be at the expense of vital inpatient services, says Lorna Collins in an article today in the Guardian supporting Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

No single treatment or approach works for every patient experiencing an eating disorder and it is extremely hard to get help;  there is too little money in the system to provide enough care.

"Speaking to patients, carers and clinicians, I am struck by the sheer desperation of so many people saying the system has failed them. Too many find that nothing is done until they are at death’s door. Others say no one talks about binge-eating disorder, which is still too often seen as a weakness or a problem that dieting can fix, rather than a real eating disorder," says Lorna.

Clinicians, too, paint a gloomy picture of the state of services. Oxford-based eating disorder consultant Agnes Ayton, who chairs the faculty of eating disorders at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, is frank about the problems. She believes NHS eating disorder services are on their knees and desperately need more money after years of austerity.

However, there are some encouraging signs. In West Yorkshire and Harrogate, consultant psychiatrist William Rhys Jones, who works for the Connect community and inpatient eating disorders service, says he is seeing real change. Connect’s community outreach teams deliver home-based treatment for people with severe and enduring eating disorders.

This is one of the NHSE new care models and Jones says results so far have been very positive. Clinical community services and early intervention result in a good prognosis, he says – and it is cost effective. While inpatient treatment costs about £434 a day, community treatment costs about £20 to £35 a day, with similar or even improved clinical outcomes.

While there are concerns about limiting inpatient treatment and prioritising community treatment simply because it may be cheaper, positive examples like this can help hold the NHS to its promise to make treatment truly open to all who need it.

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Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2020