Eating Disorders Awareness Week
For Eating Disorders Awareness Week (26 February – 3 March) we spoke to Dr Nitisha Patel, Wisteria ward’s consultant psychiatrist, about her role, the work of the team, and what inspired her to specialise in children and young people’s eating disorders…
Q. Tell us about your role and the work of the Wisteria ward team?
“We treat young people with eating disorders who need more intensive care and support than can be provided by our community services. As the ward’s consultant psychiatrist, it’s my role to lead and support the team in making decisions about a young person’s illness and the care and treatment they need.
“I’m also here to support families and parents who we work closely with throughout a young person’s stay with us. We provide education, guidance, and the skills families need to navigate their loved one's recovery journey and support them outside of hospital.”
Q. Tell us about how you came to work at Wisteria ward, including what made you decide to specialise in children and young people’s eating disorders?
“During my last year of training as a junior doctor, a position became available for a trainee to act up as the consultant for Wisteria ward. I’d already worked in the community eating disorders service for a few months and really enjoyed it, so I went for the role. A permanent post came up at the same time as I was finishing my training in 2020.
“I’ve always found the human mentality around food and eating fascinating. Having been a teenage woman myself, I emphasise with young people who feel pressure to eat in a certain way or conform to specific body ideals. There is an abundance of mixed information about weight, food and diets which can be confusing to navigate and understand.
“I also think that the nature of eating disorders and disordered eating, along with the societal and cultural factors that can contribute to their development, make them very relatable experiences. Many of us will have experienced the feelings of guilt that can come with eating something we think we shouldn’t have. It’s when those feelings get out of control that they can start to impact a person’s life.”
Q. What’s a typical day like for you and the Wisteria ward team?
“At 9am, all staff come together with our young patients in the lounge area to talk through the schedule for the day. Our treatment programme includes six meals/snack times and in between those the young people will attend our on-site school if they’re able and well enough to. In the afternoons they may have sessions with our team members, including our psychologists, family therapists, doctors, social workers, occupational therapists or dietitians, and the evenings are for free time.
“For staff, there is a morning handover followed by clinical meetings and a there is a weekly ward round. This is a multi-disciplinary team meeting where we discuss each young person and review any requests they might have, for example meal plan changes. Following those conversations, we’ll meet with each young person in turn to talk to them about their care and progress and involve them in any decision making. Empowering young people to take an active role in their own treatment is an important part of recovery.”
Q. Is there a patient who highlights how your job helps people?
“We recently had a patient come back to collect some belongings. While they were here, we had the chance to catch up about their progress and how their recovery was going outside of hospital. We don’t often see our patients after they leave us, so it was incredible to hear how far they had come and how grateful they were for the care they received here.
“The family of another patient got in touch to tell us how much we had changed their lives. Hearing how we had been able to make a difference to not just one young person but their whole family was really rewarding.”
Photo caption: Dr Nitisha Patel (second from the right) with colleagues from the Wisteria ward team.
