East London CEDS won ‘Psychiatric Team of the Year’ at this year’s RCPsych Awards, hosted by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
This was in recognition of the team’s use of quality improvement (QI) methods to reduce waiting times to therapies and access to psychiatry.
The team operates across the community in the City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets, specialising in eating disorders in adolescents. It works with young individuals and children, as well as their families to provide the multidisciplinary support needed by service users.
Staff themselves are dedicated and passionate about serving their local communities, creating a collaborative approach to engaging with those in need.
Colleagues have been committed to improving the service to such an extent, that they developed a QI project to improve capacity and flow – resulting in a more dynamic and responsive service. Wait times from referral to initial assessment had been significantly reduced from 17 weeks to 2 weeks.
Notably, the team was also praised at the Awards for their success in reducing the number of young people waiting for Community Eating Disorders psychiatry reviews from a high of 73 in September 2022 to 0 in December 2022.
Commenting on the team’s win, ELFT’s Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist & Associate Clinical Director Dr Sophia Ulhaq said: “We are thrilled to have been recognised for our hard work and achievements across East London at this year’s RCPsych Awards.
“Every day we work tirelessly to support service users and their families, and we look forward to continuing our fantastic work in the future.”