FREED wins a National Positive Practice in Mental Health award!

November 2017

The FREED team have been awarded a prestigious Positive Practice in Mental Health award in the category of Specialist Eating Disorders Care.

The Positive Practice Mental Health Collaborative is a user led multi agency collaborative of seventy-five organisations, including NHS Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s), Police Forces, third sector providers, front line charities and service user groups.

The annual Positive Practice in Mental Health awards highlight examples of how good mental health care can be delivered. One of the MP judges said:

“It was an honour and a privilege to have been asked to help with this year’s judging process. Bearing in mind the quality of the contenders, making a decision was no mean feat. My warmest wishes and congratulations, not only to the winners but to everyone involved in the various projects who are helping to make a difference to the lives of people with mental health issues in our communities.” Robert Buckland MP



"This win is a fantastic reward for the hard work being done. We are so pleased to have the importance of FREED recognised and look forward to a time when early intervention is available for all young people with eating disorders."

Dr Vicki Mountford, Principal Clinical Psychologist and FREED clinician

For FREED, the award is a fantastic reflection of how important early intervention is for young people with eating disorders. First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders (FREED) is the only evidence-based specialist care approach for 16 to 25-year-olds with an eating disorder of up to 3 years duration. The introduction of FREED has been shown to significantly improve treatment uptake, clinical outcomes and service satisfaction and reduces the need for day patient and inpatient care.

Dr Vicki Mountford, Principal Clinical Psychologist and FREED clinician, says:

“This win is a fantastic reward for the hard work being done to scale FREED around the country. We are so pleased to have the importance of FREED recognised and look forward to a time when early intervention is available for all young people with eating disorders.”

The FREED team were also delighted that the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT), won a ‘highly commended’ award at the same ceremony. LYPFT is one of three sites currently trialling FREED as part of a scaling-up project funded by The Health Foundation. Their award highlights the excellent work being done to improve eating disorder care across Yorkshire.

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