Different Treatment Settings and their Benefits

Early intervention is key both in terms of recovery and in terms of average duration needed within treatment.

Whilst the risks of eating disorders are fairly well documented, there is limited evidence as to the most appropriate treatment setting. It obviously depends heavily on where the patient is on their recovery journey and how high their medical risk is, but the current expert consensus supports outpatient care as the primary treatment for anorexia and there is a massive growing evidence base for the integral role of family treatment for children, adolescents and young adults with eating disorders.

Hospitalisation to manage acute medical risk is widely thought to be essential in avoiding mortality associated with anorexia. However, the benefits of inpatient weight restoration and the assumption that hospital is the best setting for the prevention of refeeding syndrome, remain unsupported by current evidence. 

Treatment settings for eating disorders include inpatient (an intensive stay in a hospital or medical ward), day patient (partial hospitalisation or daily intervention in a medical setting) or outpatient (weekly intervention):

Inpatient Treatment

Inpatient treatment generally sees a patient have a short stay (usually a number of months) in a medical ward with the focus being on weight restoration and stabilising medical risk. Usually  treatment is within a multidisciplinary team (a collaboration of different roles and expertise) which includes both individual and group psychological support, nutritional education, supervised mealtimes and normalising eating behaviours.

Day Patient Treatment

Day patient treatment is similar to inpatient settings in that they will also have a multi disciplined approach with psychological interventions, group therapies, monitored meal times, dietetic and nutritional input, however there are no overnight stays and all intervention will be done on a daily basis. Day patient treatment tends to be more flexible than inpatient treatment and will match treatment goals to where the patient is in terms of their motivation for change. Generally day patient treatments are done in a clinic setting but some clinics do now offer a form of online day patient treatment. 

Outpatient Treatment

Outpatient treatment for eating disorders can be offered flexibly but normally the recommendation is to have therapy once or twice a week. Outpatient treatment is generally not multidisciplinary and therefore usually involves 121 or family based treatment with a single clinician. However, here at The London Centre, we offer a unique form of outpatient treatment where we have a multidisciplinary therapeutic team so we can offer a collaborative approach to treatment involving Occupational Therapists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Dietitians and Family Therapists. We don’t have internal Psychiatrists and therefore can’t hold significant medical risk ourselves, however we have lots of external close connections to specialist eating disorder Psychiatrists and medical professionals who can come alongside us on a patient’s recovery journey. 

Outpatient treatment is the least restrictive treatment setting and is therefore favoured by medical professionals and hence why early intervention is key (medical risk is low and therefore there will be less need for restrictive medical intervention). Outpatient treatment can also involve follow ups and review sessions past discharge whenever a client feels they need a review session. 

The benefit of private treatment is not only the hugely reduced waiting times, but that it is flexible to meet the individual where they feel they are and there is no pressure of having a limited number of treatment sessions. This is very much up to the patient and how motivated they are for change. 

As ever, it is hugely important to note that finding a specialist within the field of eating disorders is essential and the recovery journey is hugely difficult and requires an immense amount of hard work both for the individual, their family and those around them. We are here to support you on your journey and we absolutely believe that with the right interventions and the right clinical  team, recovery is always possible. 

For more information or to book an appointment please email us at info@thelondoncentre.co.uk