About our service

The All-Age Eating Disorder Service (AADS) for Kent and Medway is a specialist service. Our service aims to bring hope and confidence, through help and support, to those who have an eating disorder, to enable them to take back control of their life by overcoming their eating disorder.

We are a friendly team who will work with clients and their families (if appropriate). To ensure we are all working together and sharing information about treatment and progress, we will have regular meetings to review how things are going and keep GPs updated on progress.

Throughout treatment, clients (and families) will be involved in the decision-making regarding care, reflecting basic rights for privacy, confidentiality, dignity, and respect.

What support do we offer?

We accept:

• Anorexia nervosa (AN) — When an individual tries to keep their weight as low as possible by not eating enough food, exercising too much, or both.
• Bulimia nervosa (BN) — When an individual sometimes loses control and eats a lot of food in a very short amount of time (bingeing) and are then deliberately sick, use laxatives, restrict what they eat, to do too much exercise to stop themselves gaining weight.
• Binge eating disorder (BED) — When an individual regularly loses control of their eating, eat large portions of food all at once until they feel uncomfortably full, and are then often upset or guilty.
• Other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) — When an individual’s symptoms do not exactly match those of anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder, but it does not mean it is a less serious illness.
• Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) — ARFID is not the same as ‘picky’ or ‘fussy’ eating. Most young children go through stages where they are resistant to try new foods or avoid previously tolerated foods. They usually grow out of this stage from watching others and learning it is safe to try new foods. Children with ARFID will experience longstanding difficulties with food and eating which cause significant concern in terms of their physical health and development or emotional wellbeing.

The type of support offered will vary depending on the type and severity of the concern. All our direct support options aim for people to meet their own goals. These include:

• Individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy-E (CBT-E)
• Family Therapy
• Guided self-help
• Groupwork
• Psychiatric Medical Assessment and Reviews
• Dietetic Advice and Support
• Duty and crisis support
• Physical health monitoring
• Outreach support

Following the assessment, a care plan is agreed regarding how best to help. All care plans are individual based upon the needs of the young person or adult. If treatment is suggested, this treatment will be evidence based (following NICE - National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines). Treatment may be provided either in a group or 1:1. Treatments may also involve the people around the children and young people such as carers, schools, and other professionals. 

How to refer

The minimum age for referrals to this service is 8 years.

To refer please complete this referral form and return to KentandMedwayEatingDisordersService@nelft.nhs.uk.

• REFERRAL FORM

Please note that referrals by letter, with the appropriate information and patient history will still be accepted by the service.