Eating disorder expert recommendations

[freddiemercury]

Hi there, I've got a 15 year old daughter who is struggling with her eating. She is very rigid about what she will and won't eat... she is also exercising excessively. I think she needs to see an expert before it spirals completely. I wonder if anyone has a recommendation for one in Dorset/Somerset... near Sherborne. Many thanks for any recommendations.

Have you looked at www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk for support and guidance. There may be listings of specialist help in your area for you and your daughter.

I’m afraid I don’t know of any services local to you but as a pp says, the charity Beat will be able to advise you.

What I would say is that there are many counsellors saying they specialise in Eating Disorders. What you need to find is a multidisciplinary, specialist service comprising of clinical psychology, dieticians, therapists and psychiatrists, with daycare and inpatient care should things deteriorate. Hopefully your dd isn’t at that stage but these are the centres with the most expertise.

NHS referrals are difficult to come by and unfortunately often have criteria based on extremely low BMI,so you might need to fight and / or pay for assessment.

I was inpatient in the adult Ed unit in Poole (Kimmerige Court at St Ann’s). It was a while ago but I think some of their staff also did private work. I wonder if you contacted them they may be able to point you in the right direction.

Just to add I’d echo what pp says Re therapists claiming to specialise in Ed. You need to grill them on what makes them specialist, when their most recent training was, how many patients they have worked with in the last year. I say this because there is so much great research and advances in treatment yet many ‘specialists’ haven’t done any training in the last decade.
Also, get your dr to the gp, she needs medical monitoring if nothing else. And the quicker you access treatment the better.

Also, don’t be put off if the GP doesn’t take you seriously . Have a look at the NICE guidelines for the treatment of Eating Disorders and be prepared to be assertive .

You are right to intervene early. The evidence all shows that early, specialist treatment gives the best outcomes. Also the nice guidelines state that BMI alone shouldn’t be used as a measure of severity.

Thank you so much for the advice.. hugely appreciated..