Home page

The goal of the Phoenix Centre’s treatment is not so much to achieve a cure as to help the young person to come to terms with their illness and to develop strategies for dealing with it more successfully so they might have a more ‘normal life’ and participate in the things that most young people want to do e.g. education, family life and social life. Treatments are therefore targeted on the following areas:

· Improving behaviours (e.g. eat better, don’t vomit) so that weight can be restored

· Helping the young person understand their illness and not give in to it (psycho-education, motivational enhancement therapy, other psychological treatments)

· Helping the young person return to aspects of normal life (e.g. school and family). This is achieved by starting home leaves early in the admission, and through helping the family support the young person.

The average length of stay is four months, though for much of this period the young person will usually be spending significant amounts of time on home leave. During their stay, the young person will be supported in their treatment by a multi-disciplinary team including psychiatrists, nurses, clinical psychologists, family therapists, dietician and teachers, all of whom are based at the Phoenix Centre. Although at times we do need to be controlling in order to save life and prevent life-threatening deterioration, we recognise that lasting progress tends to depend on us working in partnership with the young person, the family and local professionals. This is always our goal.

Treatment varies according to the needs of the young person, However typically it will include:

· 1:1 weekly appointments with the consultant psychiatrist and with key nurse.

· Individual and family psychological treatment

· Support with eating

· Monthly review meetings with members of the Phoenix Centre team, the young person, their family and referrers from the young person’s local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).

· Education in the Phoenix Centre school

Once discharged young people return to the care of their local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. In order to smooth what can be a difficult transition we have an outreach team. The Phoenix Centre Outreach team assists in planning discharge, making the necessary arrangements and seeing young people and families for a while after discharge to provide support during this period.

For more information on the services provided by the Phoenix Centre please see the associated documents below and the infomation packs on the 'For Young People' and 'For Parents' sections of the website.

Please note that Phoenix Centre staff are unable to respond to queries about individual patients. If you are concerned about a friend or relative please contact your GP who will be able to make a referral if necessary. You might also find it helpful to look at the Beat website (link shown below), which contains information about eating disorders and sources of support.

Associated documents 2010_EoE_CAMHS_Eating_Disorder_Service_Specification_-_The_Phoenix_Centre 109 KB 12/02/2010 17:20 Phoenix_Centre_Operational_Policy 271 KB 09/02/2010 17:16 Phoenix_Centre_Care_Pathway 242 KB 09/02/2010 17:12 Phoenix_Centre_Structure_Chart 285 KB 10/02/2010 14:54 To view a PDF document please download Adobe Acrobat Reader. External websites Beat Information and support for people with eating disorders and their family and friends. Training Activities Information about our forthcoming training events can be found here Disclaimer We are not responsible for the contents or reliability of the linked web sites and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.