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Eating Disorders Daycare Service (Maudsley Hospital)

How our service can help you

We offer assessment and treatment options  for people with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and mixed eating disorder symptoms (‘other specified feeding or eating disorders’). We aim to provide evidence-based care packages tailored to the needs of patients and their families/carers. In some cases we may offer evidence-based self-help resources rather than direct treatment with our team. This is currently our first-line offer for binge eating disorder. 

Our service is internationally renowned for its research and at the forefront of treatment development, having generated much of the evidence underpinning contemporary eating disorder treatments. If you would like to know more about our research, or for clinical information, please visit: Eating Disorders Research Group.

We see adults of all ages. We are proud to serve a culturally and ethnically diverse catchment area and are happy to arrange interpreters if needed. We do not currently take national (out of area) referrals.

We have several pathways to tailor care within the service. These are not separate referral pathways but help us to adapt existing evidence-based eating disorder treatments to the needs of different patient groups:

For more information on referrals, please email slm-tr.eatingdisorders@nhs.net 

  • Service Borough Covers: National (Adult services) Treatment type: Outpatient

  • Contact the service

    Site Location: Maudsley Hospital Email: slm-tr.eatingdisorders@nhs.net Phone Number: 020 3228 3180
  • Disabled Access:

    Yes
  • Address: Middle House
    Maudsley Hospital
    Denmark Hill,
    London,
    SE5 8AZ
  • Business Hours/Visiting Hours:

    Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm. 

    Limited 8am appointments are available.

    • Other essential information

  • Conditions: Addictions, Anxiety, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism, Bipolar disorder, Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), Childhood degenerative disorders, Conduct disorder, Dementia, Depression, Dissociative disorders, Eating disorders, Learning disabilities, Neuropsychiatry, Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), Perinatal disorders, Persistent physical symptoms, Personality disorders, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Psychosexual, Psychosis, Self-harm

Interventions

  • Assessment with  an eating disorder clinician, which covers eating disorder symptoms, other areas of difficulty, and medical assessment
  • Formulation of diagnosis and treatment plan
  • Self-help
  • Guided self-help
  • Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-ED)
  • Individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Eating Disorders (CBT-ED)
  • Maudsley Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA)
  • Family therapy
  • Other individual psychological therapies may be offered when clinically indicated, including;
      • Cognitive analytic therapy
      • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy alongside CBT-ED
      • Focal psychodynamic psychotherapy for anorexia nervosa
      • Schema therapy
  • Adapted treatment for those who are autistic
  • Adapted treatment for those who have experienced trauma
  • Specialist dietetics
  • Occupational therapy
  • Carers skills workshops and support groups
  • Multidisciplinary input
  • Liaison with outside agencies
  • Longstanding Eating Disorders Clinic for enduring eating disorders not manageable in primary care due to high risk

Eligibility criteria

  • 18 years and over
  • Registered with a GP in the south-east London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham or Southwark
  • Suspected diagnosis of: 
      • anorexia nervosa
      • bulimia nervosa
      • binge eating disorder (please note we are currently sending self-help material for those with binge eating disorder)
      • mixed eating disorder / eating disorder not otherwise specified / other specified feeding or eating disorder

Exclusion criteria

  • Obesity, without an eating disorder
  • A major psychiatric or physical disorder requiring treatment before the eating disorder can be addressed, e.g., current active psychosis or significant substance dependence

Outcomes

  • Maintain patients within the community
  • Provide a full and thorough assessment with recommendations
  • Greater psychological functioning and wellbeing
  • Improvement and remission of eating disorder symptoms 
  • Improved physical health
  • Work with close others/carers/families to enable support in the home, where appropriate
  • Stabilise long-standing eating disorders patients to decrease number of admissions or reduce lengths of stay 

Care Pathways

This is typically a nine-step pathway from referral to discharge. The care pathway last between six and nine months.


Recovery

This service was introduced in April 2011 in response to patients (with a BMI of 14 or less) often reporting that they felt unprepared to manage the full range of life experiences that follow inpatient treatment, and that without practise they can struggle or relapse.

The programme runs from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and supports people to increase their independence and take more personal responsibility for their health, social and emotional life.

Step-up's client group typically takes low weight patients who are avoiding admission or have just come out of hospital. Some of their clients may not be working on weight restoration but are wanting to maintain a low BMI and achieve other recovery goals.

Day Care

Day Care treatment to people who may be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa or other severe and complex eating disorders. Patients are referred to the unit either as a step-down from inpatient care or where outpatient treatment is not sufficient. Occasionally, day care also deals with OPAL patients.

This service is for people who want to move towards full bio, psycho and social recovery from their eating disorder. The day care programme operates from Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, and includes active nutritional rehabilitation, key working, occupational therapy and evidence-based group and individual therapy.

Day-care is based at the Maudsley and runs from 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday. Day-care's client group tends to be those aiming for full weight restoration or may be at a healthy weight with complex mental health needs and people attend day-care for six to nine months. Patients are given a welcome pack to record their progress and activities. Typically, undertake a five day a week therapy course for the first three months and this reduces to two days per week from month six.

During their course of treatment, patients will attend one-to-ones, group sessions and self-managed tasks (for example, shopping and meal preparation) with and under instruction from the day care team.

Our experts

  • Professor Ulrike Schmidt OBE MD PhD FRCPsych FMedSci FAED

Professor of Eating Disorders — King's College London

Director — Centre for Research in Eating and Weight Disorders 

and Consultant Psychiatrist - Read more

  • Dr Nikola Kern — Clinical Lead and Consultant Psychiatrist: Adult Eating Disorders
  • Dr Peachy — Consultant Psychiatrist: Outpatients and Enhance Treatment Team
  • Dr Callander — Consultant Pyschiatrist: Outpatients 
  • Dr Camilla Day — Consultant Psychiatrist: Outpatients and Day Service 
  • Dr Lucy Stephenson — Consultant Psychiatrist: Outpatients
  • Dr Karina Allen — Consultant Clincal Psychologist: Outpatients 
  • Caroline Norton — Senior Practitioner: Outpatients and Day Service
  • Sarah McGovern — Clinical Service Lead: Outpatients and Day Service
  • Louise Moran — Clinical Service Manager: Day Service
  • Caroline Pimblett —  Lead Dietician: Outpatients and Day Service
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