Ellern Mede Ridgeway inpatient eating disorder services

discharged me way too early but paula murray the activity coordinador helped me way more than any doctor there.. bethany the dietitian is truly a lifesaver and is so good at her job.. can’t say the same about oliver though.. he told me (while i was freshly new about two days new, a very sick child) “if you went out in the garden right now, with a sword and sheild and there was a dragon out there, the dragon would beat your arse” number one: i was a bedbound, sick, traumatized child.. anything would beat my “arse” number two: don’t use vulgar words to a sick sick child. number three: fire-breathing dragons don’t exist.dr hind… let’s talk about hind.. she didn’t let me on any community leave in my whole stay.. not even to the shopping mall “because of covid”. every other patient was going to the mall, to the watersports place, to the shops, on a drive with raja. but no, not me of course. i wasn’t even allowed to the supermarket with parents on overnight leave. she told me while i was bedbound that she “saw me dancing in the bathroom at night” i couldn’t even sit up, hind.. let alone dance in the bathroom.. there was no room in the bathroom to “dance” in the night as it was being used as a storage room.let’s talk about yetty.. she told me (while bedbound.. surprise surprise) if i “weren’t to sit up properly, she would force me into a wheelchair because she ‘knew i could sit up’ and was ‘just being dramatic’” if only she felt the agony and pain i was in.eric.. he was truly an amazing man, with my feeds, i would be sick a lot, due to the speed segun and other nurses were doing my feeds as they “have meetings to be in” he didn’t care if the feed took an hour and a half.. he didn’t care if my water bolus took half an hour.. he said “as long as i’m as comfortable as possible and keep it down”.. i wouldn’t be here without eric.harriet james.. former health care assistant. she helped me in ways that i cannot describe. helping me with feeds and our little activities. i thank her for my recovery so much.✨lola olatundun✨ the star of my life.really a mother to me. looking after me in my darkest hours. curing my hypoglycemia at 4 am. reading me bedtime stories. holding my hand while feeding me, as i was so scared. doing “star glazing” every night, thanking the brightest stars in the sky. doing “foot spas” and “head massages”. hugging me when i was having mental breakdowns, opposed to other staff members, shouting at me to be quiet. staying with me all night so i felt comfortable. i cannot thank mama lola enough. our last meeting before discharge was beautiful. we went star glazing, tears filling up and glazing over both of our eyes. that last walk around the garden, hands squeezed together. our final embrace. our final song. it was truly magical.i would not be alive to tell the story without lola. i mean it.thank you staff that were good to me. i love you.- DS

Ellern Mede is the leading specialist UK independent provider of eating disorder services. The nurses and healthcare assistants are on hand 24/7 being kind but firm and making sure our young people are safe; our consultants and therapists continuously review care planning and reflect on progress. We see the most acute of eating disorder patients. Our motto is that we never give up on a patient. There is always hope here.

We did out patients before we moved to Northumberland. Daughter refered to Oliver as a life saver. First service that really listened. Adapted their approach as necessary. Whole team were great.

Love these guys they really care for their clients.

Hated it. Very abusive there and they treat you like animals

My grandaughter is currently here. Have nothing good to say about this place. Turnover of staff is appalling, just as she gets to trust members of staff they leave. Have read the other reviews the only name I recognise is momma Lola who is terrific and caring.

I was a paitent here over 3 years ago, I was a very scared and timid child consumed by anorexia and bullimia. Ellern mede gave me the space to become to meet food again and held me as at that point i didn’t want to recover as I was too young. But I relapsed soon after leaving Ellern mede was the perfect care for me at the beggining of my journey. I am still very grateful for the support I had

Patient in 2019, aged 17. Of course has its good bits and bad bits and at the end of the day, no one wants to be there as it’s a hospital!But I chose to go in as I wanted to recover so desperately and was unable to get appropriate support in the North West of England. No other units would accept me due to my co-morbidities or because I wasn’t a ‘low enough’ weight.Dr Kiran Chitale who assessed me was the first person who seemed to truly understand and care about me and my needs.Yes there were (and I believe there still are) management issues and quite a lot of disorganisation, but this was never the fault of the ward staff who mainly went above and beyond to make me feel supported and reassure me I deserved to be there and to recover. I was treated as an individual with my own needs, and my age was respected and they gave me more freedom in respect and reflection of the fact I was nearly and adult.The cottage back then was a shambles in terms of the building (mice, windows which were unsafe, doors which were easily opened by patients) but I believe this has changed since I left.I was transferred to Barnet once I turned 18, literally a few days after. This was hard, especially when others were allowed to stay way past their 18th birthday and remaining with the same staff would have benefitted me much more.The therapeutic options are something you don’t find on the NHS. I had twice weekly psychology sessions with an amazing psychologist who advocated for me and my needs. I was listened to. I had access to a dietician (yes we clashed but that was the nature of her job!) who supported me and pushed me. So many options to have leave and activities which again, do not happen in NHS wards and I can vouch for that.Was not forced out the door once physically healthy either.Staffing was an issue sometimes, we had too few staff to be able to take us out as planned or spend time with those not on a 1-1 but again, ward staff did their upmost to look after us all.This comes from someone who has experienced the HORRORS of NHS wards, lack of funding in the North of England (no day patients and when discharged to adults ED services was completely let down and dismissed) and wanted to recover. If you are able to utilise the support available (which again; is much more than usual) this place can truly save you.Admissions into these hospitals will ALWAYS be traumatic and if you don’t want to recover you’re going to think it’s the worst place ever. No hospital is perfect but I really do believe that EM and the staff in particular have played a huge role in my recovery, after struggling for many many years with anorexia and not getting anywhere in the community they helped me get my life back.It is to be noted that patients do stay here for very long periods of time compared to normal ED wards- this again has its pros and cons and I am grateful that a 9 month admission for me was the perfect length of time to not be too institutionalised and not too unwell to return home. I think in some cases patients do become very scared to leave due to the length of their admission and this could be detrimental to them- want to reiterate though that many will not see this at the time and it is also not beneficial to leave too early.

Very caring staff, tough love, but staff who genuinely love their job x