On the Back Cover
Community Treatment of Eating Disorders describes how to put together a team that will deliver community-based treatment to a range of people with eating disorders. Rooted in clinical experience, it is based on a model service established in London and provides professionals with a detailed guide to the provision of care from the initial stages of the eating disorder through to long-term Severe and Enduring Eating Disorder (SEED) reached by a proportion of sufferers.
This innovative guide provides a new approach for efficient outpatient assessment, a comprehensive approach to effective physical monitoring, a new method of assessing muscle power (the SUSS test) and a full description of day hospital treatment for eating disorders. Individual, group and family therapy are described and useful case histories are used throughout. All aspects of setting up and running a service are covered, including:
- funding, management and ensuring safety
- training and supporting staff
- improving team morale
- establishing liaison and outreach
- using inpatient care and supporting patients in hospital
- engaging in training, teaching and research.
Flexible in its approach, Community Treatment of Eating Disorders enables professionals to replicate the methods in their own contexts. It is a vital tool for all health care professionals working with eating disorders, and for those involved in the funding, planning and implementation of services.
About the Author
Dr Paul Robinson is a consultant psychiatrist in eating disorders psychiatry at the Russell Unit, Royal Free Hospital, Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust. After postgraduate training in general medicine he trained in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, was a family therapist and conducted research into control of eating behaviour at the institute of Psychiatry and Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In the last eight years at the Royal Free he has built up a multidisciplinary team dedicated to the community approach to eating disorders, minimising use of inpatient care and developing safe and effective ways to provide treatment for these distressing, debilitating and at times life-threatening conditions. The team has twice been in the final of the Hospital Doctor Team of the Year Award. His present interests are the treatment of severe and enduring eating disorder (SEED), and the delivery of therapy via email, for which he reached the final of the Medical Innovations Award. He lives in North London.
