Specialised training for caring for autistic children and young people with eating disorders and disordered eating
A group of staff from our National and Specialist CAMHS team recently delivered a highly praised and valued programme of national training on caring for autistic young people presenting with eating disorders and others forms of eating difficulties. There is an increasing number of autistic young people who require support for eating difficulties with a growing number requiring in-patient care.
NHS England’s Learning Disabilities and Autism Team identified a national gap in clinicians knowledge and confidence in caring for these young people. While previously there has been national training on both autism and eating disorders in young people, there has been a gap in addressing the needs of those presenting with both. Given our recognised expertise on both autism and eating disorders, we were commissioned by the LDA team to deliver a test training programme.
The sign up for the course was high with over 600 registered participants with extremely positive feedback.
One attendee said: “As an expert by experience, with lived experience of AN and ASD, currently working alongside an NHS community eating disorder service, I found your training exceptional. It truly captured the reality of living with these conditions – going beyond statistics and research papers to reflect the human experience behind them. Thank you for striving to make a genuine difference to those of us who have endured systems that, in many cases, have been deeply traumatic and have failed to meet our needs.”
Rachel Bryant-Waugh said: “This has been a wonderful opportunity to meet committed colleagues from all over the country, to be able to share knowledge and experience with them and to learn from them. If we have played even a small part in contributing towards improvements in care for this group of young people on a national basis, it will be a job well done. Comments such as the one below make our efforts so worthwhile.”
The training was led by Dr Rachel Bryant-Waugh, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, with support from Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists Dr Elaine Chung, Dr Eleni Paliokosta, and Dr Eirini Skouta, and Consultant Clinical Psychologists Dr Catherine Sholl and Dr Kevin Tierney. The team also included Angela Ormond, who provided invaluable admin support.
A huge congratulations to the team who put this incredible training together that will in turn help fill knowledge gaps and support young people as best we can.
