Waiting times reduced by 32% for assessment and 41% for treatment – speeding up diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders.
The Early Intervention Eating Disorders programme uses the First episode Rapid Early intervention for Eating Disorders (FREED) model, in which services provide a specialist care package for 16 to 25-year-olds with a first episode eating disorder of less than three years duration. We support trusts to implement and evaluate this model and improve the care, experience and outcomes of young adults with eating disorders across the East Midlands.
Eating disorders typically develop in adolescence and early adulthood, when the brain is still developing and can cause brain changes that negatively affect chances of recovery. Treatment outcomes are significantly worse after an illness duration of three or more years, compared to earlier intervention.
The FREED model enables health service providers to start treatment within four weeks of referral to an eating disorder service. It also attends to the specific needs of young people in the early stages of an eating disorder. It emphasises early, pro-active engagement; early symptom change; family involvement; attention to the effects of eating disorders on the brain; attention to social media use; and attention to transitions (out of school, to university, into work) and ‘emerging adulthood’.
Across 2016-2018, FREED scaled successfully from the eating disorder service at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) to three other eating disorder services in England.
The AHSN Network are backing the national spread and adoption of this programme, with regional AHSNs supporting the implementation and evaluation of services in their area. Two East Midlands trusts (Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust) have established the FREED model and are now live. Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust FREED model is expected to launch in June 2021.
