Eating disorders: New programme helping young people in Hampshire

The programme's clinical lead Sarah Cole says early detection and treatment is key to recovery

A centre offering a new model for helping young people with eating disorders has opened in Hampshire.

Unlike traditional inpatient methods, Leigh House's day programme combines family therapy with nursing care.

The number of young people being cared for with severe eating disorders in the county has risen from 144 in 2016 to 247 in 2024, Southern Health said.

Eating disorder charity Beat said young people across England were waiting "far too long" for treatment.

According to NHS England figures, more than 6,000 children and young people were waiting for treatment at the end of December.

More than seven in 10 who were still waiting for urgent eating disorder treatment at the end of 2023 had already been waiting three months or more.

"Children and young people are waiting far too long for the treatment they deserve," Beat told the BBC.

It added: "We're concerned this will mean they become more unwell as they wait to be seen."

The day service at Leigh House is open to young people aged 13 to 18

Sarah Cole, clinical lead of the Leigh House eating disorder day programme in Winchester, told the BBC early detection and treatment leads to the best chance of recovery.

She explained: "Some of the young people we're caring for have been diagnosed with anorexia two or three years ago, so it's an uphill struggle.

"We want to try to get young people into more of a preventative [treatment] - so when they've just been diagnosed with anorexia rather than when they've had it for more than a year and it's already got quite a grip and is embedded."

The service is open to those aged 13 to 18 who are already known to specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

The centre said its model allows staff to treat young people in the community and for them to stay at home with their families.

If you've been affected by eating disorders, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

In a few months' time, Jane, whose name we have changed, will take her GCSEs. She has anorexia and is being cared for at Leigh House.

She said: "It was so much better coming here than hospital because in hospital, they don't treat the mental side of it, they make you eat but you don't really understand why you're eating.

"[Hospital had] an atmosphere where I felt really sick. I felt sometimes I was being treated like I was crazy."

Ms Cole said it was really important to "treat the whole family".

"We want to move away from a blame model - nobody knows why young people get eating disorders," she said.

"We want to empower families and support them to treat their young people at home and know what they're dealing with."

A man whose daughter has used Leigh House's services said that before securing a place at the Hampshire facility, the only other help offered was an inpatient stay at a hospital hundreds of miles away in Liverpool.

He said the programme in Winchester was helping his family to build "the right tool set of how to deal with different situations".

"Obviously meal times are always a struggle and there are certain things which trigger anorexia," he said.

"You build a list of things to say, what not to say, how to react in certain situations to try to control things."

Leigh House offers a nine-week programme for up to 10 young people at a time.

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