Eating Distress North East has been working with the Adult Eating Disorder Provider Collaborative (part of the North East North Cumbria Integrated Care System) to better understand what role the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector could play in supporting adults with eating disorders/distress.
Between April 2023 and April 2024 we developed a network (learning community) for VCSE sector organisations to help them develop their capacity to support people living with eating distress and the final project report identified six recommendations for future VCSE involvement in the adult eating disorder pathway:
1. Create collaborative pathways: Undertake mapping of the AED pathways with all partners and incorporate EDNE into adult eating disorder (AED) care pathway.
2. Build an AED VCSE commissioning model based on collaboration and partnership, with appropriate investment and resources
3. Tackle place-based disparities in access to eating disorder/distress services across NHS and VCSE
4. Invest in education: Sustainable training and education in eating distress/disorder is needed by a wide range of organisations across the NENC ICS area.
5. Work towards implementing the Universal Personalised Care Model within AED pathway.
6. Embed VCSE community-based support into all Individual Care Plans, and allocate resources to establish a VCSE AED commissioning fund, ensuring this includes provision for micro-commissioning.
The full report is available to download as a PDF document.
Our Learning Community for VCSE sector organisations is continuing until 31 March 2025 and for more details on this please contact our Education and Training OfficerSarahlou Murray sarahlou.murray@edne.org.uk.
