The Cheshire and Merseyside Adolescent Eating Disorder Service (CHEDS) is a specialist outpatient team that offers assessment, treatment and support to young people aged 13-18 with a broad range of complex eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder or atypical eating disorders.

We are based in the Countess of Chester Health Park at Churton House and we are a hospital admission avoidance service.

We offer individual, parent, family and group therapy, depending on what would be most beneficial for you. You will also be offered appointments with our Specialist Dietitian and additional 1:1 sessions with our Assistant Psychologist.

We also offer twice yearly Multi-Family Therapy Workshops, which are 4-day long intensive family therapy courses involving up to 6 families at a time. Due to limited spaces we can only offer this course if we feel it will be beneficial to you at your current point in treatment.

Outpatient treatment is less disruptive to social and family life in comparison to inpatient treatment (e.g. staying in a hospital for young people experiencing mental health difficulties), so we encourage outpatient treatment as much as possible.

However, if it is felt that inpatient treatment would be beneficial as part of your treatment, CHEDS works closely with the paediatric ward at the Countess of Chester hospital, and the children and young people’s inpatient services at Ancora House in Chester, to provide hospital care for young people with eating disorders.

Referrals are currently accepted from Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services across Cheshire and Wirral Partnership, including our Spoke teams based in Wirral, Chester, Crewe, Winsford and Macclesfield. In order to be assessed by CHEDS, your child must first be receiving treatment from one of these teams. 

Once you have been referred to us, we will see you within 7 days (if it's an urgent referral) or 28 days (if it's a routine referral). The assessment will be with both the young person and their parents and takes place in Chester. Once you have taken part in the assessment, we will consult with our multi-disciplinary team and provide you with the outcome of the assessment as soon as possible. If we decide that your child will benefit from treatment with CHEDS, we will aim to organise an appointment with your individual and parent worker within 2 weeks of the assessment. During that time, you will be provided with support packs from CHEDS and will be asked to engage in a call which ensures your treatment is person-centred and adjusted to your individual needs.