Eating Disorders

We treat all kinds of eating disorders. These disorders are a complex mix of physical and psychological issues - and to be most effective, treatment needs to take both aspects into account. Our aim is to provide a secure, healing environment, where we can address people's medical and nutritional needs, and help them find better coping strategies.

We treat eating disorders following NICE national guidelines. This can be in an inpatient setting at Ealing or through outpatient appointments at Harrow, Godden Green, Harrogate or Ealing. This is for individuals with a diagnosis of any of the following:

Cygnet Hospital Ealing provides specialist inpatient services for the most severely ill patients. We also offer a unique model to treat complex disorders which combine eating disorder and personality disorder. The correlation between these occurring together is high but they must be treated together rather than independently of each other.

Referrers can expect regular reports on their service users throughout the period of admission together with a detailed discharge summary. Pre-discharge meetings are arranged to liaise with local community professionals to help plan aftercare.

We can assess and treat individuals quickly, and provide a bed within 24 hours, if necessary. Treatment can be short or long term, and depends on the symptoms, issues and severity of the disorder.

We find a combination of the following often works best:

  • Therapy - through individual, group and family therapy, we explore the issues underlying the eating disorder and help raise self esteem.
  • Nutritional counselling - our dieticians design meal plans, set dietary goals, and help people achieve a healthy weight.
  • Group support - attending our groups can help individuals feel less alone. Some of these are run by current or ex-service users.
  • Complementary therapies - we also offer therapies such as massage, drama, art, reflexology and physiotherapy, which treat the 'whole person', not just the eating disorder.

Using a tailored approach, we aim to break the cycle of illness and treatment - and help people regain balance in their lives.