Community Eating Disorder Service

Navigating eating difficulties can be challenging, if you are experiencing eating difficulties and think you may need support, you or your family/carer can self-refer directly to our service. This can be done through calling us on 0161 701 0447 and requesting to speak with one of our practitioners, or alternatively you can email a summary to mftceds@mft.nhs.uk. This inbox is monitored Monday – Friday 9-5. Alternatively, you can fill out the referral form attached on this website, or receiving this after emailing mftceds@mft.nhs.uk

If you would like to access support for ARFID, this can be done through completing the referral form with a completed food diary. Both documents can be accessed through emailing mftceds@mft.nhs.uk or through this website. If you are wondering whether to refer a young person, please feel free to contact us using the above email address, or phoning 0161 701 0447.

With consent from the family or young person, we also accept referrals from:

• GP
• Health Professionals
• Social Care Professionals
• Anyone working with young people and families.

We aim to screen all referrals the same day (Monday – Friday 9 – 5). Once a referral is screened, this will be taken to a weekly team meeting to collaboratively discuss the next best course of action. If it is determined to assess the young person, we see all our young people within four weeks of the referral being received, and within one week for those identified as urgent. If the referral is not accepted, we will inform the referrer of this decision.

The assessment process for CEDS includes:

• An initial face to face assessment appointment. This typically includes two of our practitioners meeting with the young person and their family, but there will also be an opportunity or option for the young person to speak with the practitioners on their own if preferred.
• The initial assessment is an opportunity to gather information around eating difficulties and assess what further support might be required or helpful. During this appointment, we will ask questions around your eating difficulties, to help us gain insight and understanding of how this is impacting your day-to-day life.
• We often will monitor your physical health during these assessments. This is done by measuring your height and weight and checking your blood pressure and pulse. Sometimes we may feel a blood test, or other medical investigations are necessary, and we would arrange this for a future date.
• We may also sometimes require permission to speak to other professionals involved with the young person, such as a school, or a GP.
• Following assessments, we take all of our assessments back to our MDT meetings which occur every Tuesday and discuss the assessment with a range of mental health professionals within the CEDS service, to think about what might best for our young people.

Waiting times within the ARFID team can look slightly different, and at current do not have a timescale for when young people will be seen. Referrals are only accepted by those with a Manchester, Trafford or Salford GP practice.

The assessment process for the ARFID team includes:

• An initial telephone assessment which involves speaking with one of our practitioners and asking further questions to gain an understanding of the young person’s eating difficulties, how long this has been ongoing for and what you feel the difficulties currently are.
• Following this we take all telephone assessments back to our MDT meetings which occur every Wednesday and discuss the assessment with a range of mental health professionals within the ARFID service and think about the next course of action for our young people, which could either be a further face to face assessment seen by two of our practitioners, or a telephone consultation.