News

We recently launched a new eating disorder recovery hubs pathway within our community mental health teams at the Trust. This innovative service provides psychological therapy for individuals with eating disorders who do not require intensive medical or dietetic intervention. The first hub opened in July 2024, with all five boroughs’ hubs up and running by January 2025.

What the hubs offer

The pathway offers cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), an evidence-based treatment for adults with eating disorders. Through weekly individual sessions, our dedicated therapists support patients to establish and maintain regular eating and work with service users to explore beliefs and rules around food and their body image, while also helping them manage difficult emotions. CBT aims to reduce worries about shape and weight by addressing behaviours such as bingeing, purging, and restrictive eating. Sarah, one of our clinical psychologists in the service, is pictured above!

We are committed to providing timely access to our services, as the evidence shows that early treatment significantly enhances long-term recovery prospects.

Why we set up this new service

The Eating Disorders team identified that there was a gap in existing services - there was no provision for service users with mild-to-moderate eating disorders. For these people, this meant they either received no support, or their condition deteriorated to the point at which they could be treated by the St Ann’s Eating Disorders Service, or, where these individuals had other mental health conditions, they worsened and accessed another of our services. Any of those three outcomes negatively impacts the likelihood of eating disorder recovery for these people. So, we created this new pathway to offer treatment to service users who otherwise would not receive eating disorders help.

Ours is the first service of its kind in North Central London, although there is a similar pathway running in East London under the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT). Ours remains one of the only services able to support people with mild-to-moderate binge eating disorder.

How to access our service

The pathway is available to people aged 17.5 years and older who meet the criteria for an eating disorder. We specifically focus on helping individuals who are not underweight. For more information on the referral criteria, please visit our service page here.

If you think you might benefit from our pathway, your GP can refer you by emailing the community mental health team for your area. Your referral will be screened, and if we believe our service is suitable for you, we will invite you to an assessment. If we are the best service to help you, we will accept you for treatment. Otherwise, we will connect you with other services that may be more appropriate.

We are excited about the positive impact the hubs will have on the community and encourage anyone who might benefit from our services to reach out. We’re particularly proud to offer one of the few services of its kind with help tailored to people with binge eating disorder. Plus, we’re working closely with our core teams, meaning the new pathway will be joined up with other mental health services, which will benefit service users.