The CAMHS Eating Disorder Pathway works with children and young people (aged 5 – 18 years) and their families in the community. Children and young people receive support when there are significant concerns regarding their eating behaviours and the impact of this on their physical and psychological wellbeing.

The Eating Disorder Pathway offer assessment and treatment to young people with eating disorder diagnosis: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder).

We aim to offer an assessment within 4 weeks of receiving a referral or sooner if indicated. The first appointment may involve several different team members to ensure that we offer a thorough assessment and a multi-disciplinary perspective. Eating disorders are complex mental health difficulties and are frequently influenced by a range of interacting factors.

Our assessments will cover a wide range of areas including, eating behaviours, physical health, psychological, early development, as well as social, family and education factors. From our assessment an understanding will be developed between the young person, their family and clinical staff about the nature of their difficulties and the further support required.

Following the assessment, we will offer feedback and a diagnosis if appropriate. If an eating disorder is identified we will provide the young person and their family with relevant information, the appropriate intervention and a collaborative care plan to support recovery. If we feel that CAMHS Eating Disorder Pathway is not the right team to help we will identify the most appropriate support from other services.

The Eating Disorder Pathway will support young people and their families to recover from their eating disorder by learning what their difficulties are and to provide a space to talk about their fears and worries. We support young people to return to carefree eating and a healthy weight for their age. Once young people are eating more regular meals with some evidence of weight gain, we can explore ways to help the young person and their families prevent relapse. Recovery is more likely the sooner an eating disorder is treated with better longer-term outcomes. Treatment often takes place over the period of six months to a year.

We offer of a range of therapy approaches within the Eating Disorder Pathway to support young people and their families to get better. Most young people and families are initally supported through a family therapy-based approach. In addition to this can we offer individual work such as psychotherapy and CBT. Our healthcare assistants provide mealtime support to those who need a bit more help with improving their eating pattern. The team also provide physical health checks and monitoring.  

The list of professionals who work within the CAMHS Eating Disorder Pathway include:

• Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist
• Therapists
• Mental Health Nurses
• Dietitian 
• Occupational Therapist
• Healthcare Assistants