Care Homes for People with Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are highly complex illnesses that require dynamic, multi-layered care.

People who have eating disorders live in a variety of settings according to their wishes, personal needs and type of illness. These options usually involve residential care of some type, but can be for acute care or for enduring, long term care.

There are many terms and definitions used for types of social care, including ‘care home, ‘residential home’ and ‘nursing home’.  Generally speaking, ‘Care Home’is the umbrella term and refers to residences which may provide accommodation along with personal or nursing care for people with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

A care home providing residential care for people with eating disorders will often provide care for a specific age, complexity or length of illness. Many will have been adapted to meet the needs of the residents, with specially trained staff, appropriate activities, and treatment programmes to focus recovery.   Some care homes offer day care, where support is given and recovery programmes put in place, with the service user returning to their own home at the end of each day.  Day care can also be useful when the resident is moving on from the care home, but still needs an element of back up and support.

Care homes can be run by private companies (individuals or larger groups), charities or local authorities.  Whoever owns them, all care homes should be registered and monitored by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Mark Sadler