EDIIT Champions Specialist Approach During Eating Disorders Awareness Week
As Eating Disorders Awareness Week comes to a close, the Eating Disorder Intensive Inreach Team (EDIIT) at Toucan (the West Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative) reflects on, and highlights, the importance of a specialist, collaborative approach for individuals with disordered eating, neurodiversity, and learning disabilities.
So far this year, EDIIT has seen an increase in requests to provide resources and support to professionals who are seeing an increase in disordered eating presentations.
Tracey Liquorish, Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist at EDIIT, said: “There has been a noticeable increase in referrals for disordered eating, we like to think of EDIIT as a wraparound scaffold onto services that are already in place – helping our community eating disorder teams feel confident, ensuring they have the tools to support individuals who don’t fit conventional care pathways.”
Toucan has received lots of feedback and is celebrating stories where EDIIT continues to collaborate with community teams to ensure a smooth transition, focusing on discharge planning, relapse prevention, and long-term support to promote sustained recovery.
The EDIIT team actively engages with community teams and acute hospitals, offering face-to-face consultations and tailored support to professionals. The team also works to minimise nasogastric feeding in acute wards by collaborating with teams, improving understanding of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), developing stabilisation plans, and ensuring safe transitions.
The team places a strong emphasis on effective communication styles, using visual prompts and other creative engagement techniques to help services better support young people with communication barriers.
Tracey added, "As part of our commitment to improving care, EDIIT has completed the National Autism Training Programme (NATP) ‘Train the Trainer’ initiative. This has allowed us to integrate neuro-affirming language and emerging theories like monotropism and the double-empathy problem, enhancing our understanding and treatment approaches."
As the team looks ahead, they remain committed to working closely and sharing knowledge with a multitude of teams to develop more inclusive and effective treatment for young people with eating disorders in the West Midlands.
You can learn more about EDIIT by clicking here