We will look at the referral and allocate one or two members of the team to assess you.

We will then send you an appointment letter, as well as some information to complete.

We arrange assessments as soon as we can, so you will hear from us shortly after we receive the referral.

The first point of contact would be their GP, who can refer them to our service.

Alternatively, if they are already involved with a local Recovery Team, their care co-ordinator can write a referral to us.

You will meet with a member of our team for about an hour. Sometimes, a second clinician might be there to help with admin.

We will ask you questions about your relationship with food, your weight, and your shape. It’s important that we know your height and weight as part of the assessment. We understand this can be hard for some people, and you can talk to the clinician about how we can take these measurements in a way that feels comfortable for you. This information will help us decide the right treatment for you.

We will also ask questions about other parts of your life, like your work and relationships.

If there are any questions you don’t feel comfortable answering, just let the clinician know.

The assessment is to help us understand if you are having difficulties that could be linked to an eating disorder, and if we can offer the right treatment for you.

Sometimes, people may have an eating disorder but don’t realise it. We encourage you to come to the assessment so we can explore this together with a clinician.

During your assessment, we will usually ask about your current weight.

For face-to-face appointments, we may ask you to be weighed. If you are not comfortable with this, please talk to the clinician during your appointment.

No. We understand that eating disorders affect people in different ways, both physically and mentally.

We do not have a weight or BMI limit for accessing our services.

After your assessment, the team will discuss your case and decide if we are the right service to help you.

If we can support you, we will discuss the best treatment options and get back to you.

We will also explain if there is a waiting time and what support you can access while waiting.

Please call us on 01865 904099 as soon as possible.

We will try to rearrange your appointment for a time that suits you, but please be aware that there are a limited number of slots available.

It’s normal to feel anxious about an assessment. We understand that it can be hard to talk about your difficulties, and this may be the first time you have discussed them in detail.

If you are worried about attending, please call us on 01865 904099 and ask to speak to a clinician. We can discuss ways to help you feel more comfortable about attending your appointment.

Please call us on 01865 904099 to cancel the appointment. One of our clinicians may want to speak to you about any concerns you have about attending.

Let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the appointment to someone else who is waiting. If people don’t inform us they can’t come, it can affect our waiting times.

If you miss your appointment, please contact us as soon as possible.

If you don’t attend without letting us know, we will write to you to check if you still want to be assessed.

If we don’t hear from you, or if you miss any more appointments without notifying us, we will assume you no longer want to be seen by our service and we may discharge you.

Yes, you can bring someone with you. They can stay for the whole appointment, part of it, or wait in the hospital waiting area or café.

If you need an interpreter, let us know and we will arrange this for you.

We know it can be hard to arrange childcare. If you need to rearrange your appointment, please call us on 01865 904099 as soon as possible.

We recommend you don’t bring children to your appointment as the topics we discuss may be sensitive. If you have a young baby and can’t avoid bringing them, you’re welcome to do so, but please keep in mind that the assessment can take a while.

Yes, there is a pay-and-display car park. You can pay with coins or through a mobile payment. Parking for 2 hours costs £1.20.

The car park uses an automatic number plate recognition system.

There is free disabled parking available. Remember to enter your registration number on the iPad at reception.

This will be decided after your initial assessment.

The assessing clinician will discuss options with you in your assessment, and we will then make recommendations for treatment.  Usually this will be discussed further in your first session.

You may be involved with several members of the team and do different types of work.

It is helpful for us to keep track of our patients’ weight, so we do recommend that you are weighed regularly throughout treatment.

Depending on where you are in your treatment, this can be done by a member of our team, by your GP or you can take responsibility for your own weighing.

This is something that will be discussed with you at the start of your treatment.

There is no specific time limit on treatment; everyone has individual treatments plans and their own treatment goals.

After your initial assessment, we will make recommendations for treatment and we may specify a number of sessions, but this will be reviewed regularly.

It may also be that you require different levels or types of help and support throughout your treatment.

It is best if you discuss this with the team member that you are seeing, as different sessions may involve different things and this may not be appropriate.

We would also not recommend that you bring children to your initial assessment.

If you are having trouble arranging childcare to fit around appointments, then please contact us and we can try to arrange alternative appointments.