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Norfolk and Waveney Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders Service

  • The child and adolescent eating disorder service support young people with eating disorders across Norfolk and Waveney.

  • Service Manager Lead: Kieron Loane
  • Service Contact: Central and West Norfolk (includes King’s Lynn and Norwich): telephone 01603 978455; East Norfolk, Great Yarmouth and Waveney: telephone 01493 337666
  • Address:
    Thurlow House,  Goodwins Road, King’s Lynn, PE30 5PD Resource Centre,  Northgate Hospital,  Northgate Street, Great Yarmouth, NR30 1BU The Lighthouse Centre,  Drayton High Road,  Norwich NR6 5BE, Norwich, NR6 5BE
  • Service hours: This service is available from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 17:00. This service is closed on bank holidays.

What this service offers

The Norfolk and Waveney Child and Adolescent Eating Disorder Service are part of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). We’re here to support young people with diagnosable eating disorders across Norfolk and Waveney. We work together with their parents, carers and families to instil hope and promote recovery.

We are made up of a range of healthcare professionals including; psychiatrists, doctors, nurses, dieticians, family therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, and support workers. This means different staff may be supporting a young person at any time.

Access this service

Young people can access our service via a referral from their GP or they can complete a self-referral. To self-refer to the service, please fill out the self-referral form. You may want support from a parent or trusted adult such as a teacher to complete this form. Alternatively, you can call 01603 421127 and ask to speak to the duty worker.

All referrals received will be reviewed by the team. Based on the information provided, a decision is made regarding whether the referral is suitable for our service. If the referral is accepted, the team will also decide whether the young person should be seen urgently (within 7 days) or routinely (within 28 days).

During the initial assessment, we meet with the young person and their family and ask lots of questions to help us get to know the young person. We will ask about school, family, eating habits, and how they feel about their body, alongside doing some physical checks such as recording blood pressure, weight and height. The initial assessment helps to build an understanding of the difficulties a young person is facing, whilst working out what support we can offer. Sometimes an assessment may take more than one meeting, and this is known as an extended assessment.

Following the assessment, we review all the information we have, and working with the young person and family, we decide next steps, also known as ‘treatment’ or a ‘care plan’. 

Treatment can include:

  • Signposting to other support
  • Meal planning and support
  • Family therapy
  • Individual therapy
  • Parent/carer support groups
  • Ongoing physical health monitoring

Most of our support is provided in the community which means that a young person and their family either come in to see us at our clinic, or that we visit them at home or in an agreed community place such as a school or café.

If a young person needs more urgent support for their physical or mental health, then they might need to go to a hospital ward to be supported on a short-term basis. This only happens if we think there is a very high medical risk that needs treating at a hospital. We always work to move the young person out of hospital and back into community support as soon as they are well enough.

Urgent help

If you are concerned or notice any of the following alarming symptoms/signs, encourage your child to go to A & E for assessment: Fainting when standing up, inability to climb stairs, talking about ending their life, food and fluid refusal (less than 500 calories for 2 consecutive days) intercurrent illness such as diarrhoea/vomiting.

This is not an exhaustive list of symptoms/signs so if you have concerns, please seek medical advice via your GP, or in an emergency call 999.

Call 111 and select the mental health option if you feel unable to keep yourself or others safe because of your mental health.

If you are with someone who has attempted suicide, call 999 and stay with them until the ambulance arrives.

If anyone is at serious risk of harm, call 999 and ask for the police.

For non-life threatening medical situations, call NHS111 on 111. 

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