The Assessment Process

This is back to that leaflet i talked about before. There are 5 stages of the assessment process which happens once you are refered to a clinic.

1. Pre-assessment Questionnaires
This is a questionnaire which i was sent in the post before the initial meeting. The questions on mine where mostly rating scales and they focused on mood, self-esteem and eating habbits.

2. Pre-assessment Baseline Physical Investigations,
Your GP is sent a letter requesting tests and these are carried out. The tests include blood tests and a ECG.

3. Assessment meeting
The whole family are invited to this. I remember me, my mum and my sister came. They were addressed quite alot and asked for input so i recommend that other family members do attend. A team is usually at the meeting, they often constist of a doctor/psychiatrist, nurse and a theropist. I had a psychiatrist, my key worker and a family worker. The meeting can take a whole morning, they say that a thoughrough understanding is very important. I was also weight and my hight and blood pressure taken at this meeting.

4. EDE
This is a semi structured interview. EDE stands for Eating Disorder Examination and it identifies which eating disorder the person has, it also provides more information about the nature of the disorder. The questions are mainly open questions allowing the person to explain themselves if they feel they need to. I know i felt the need to justify alot of the crazy seeming things i was saying! The interview was just me and a nurse alone, as far as i know family is never present.

5. Care Plan
This happens at the end of the initial meeting. The team and family put together a care plan to target the main and most urgent issues inparticular aswell as any other not so important ones.

I hope this helps some people prepare for this process. I would have like to have been able to prepare and know what i was going to be asked to do etc. before hand so there was no surprises. I hope i have been able to do this for someone!

Sophie x