"Wonderful nurses and dietitian in Tyson West 2 EDU"

I was an inpatient on the eating disorders unit in Tyson West 2 and after hearing (and reading!) pretty poor reviews I very reluctant to come. Most of the nurses were absolutely brilliant in encouraging me to try and challenge my fears. I was often approached for 1:1s due to finding asking for help really difficult and I found this really helpful.

Unlike many ED units, they provide a vegan menu and while the choices are limited, they do their best to make the most of what they can. As a whole their menu fairly varied, portion sizes aren't too overwhelming and taste wise is much better than the majority of NHS food! The dietitian is firm but also very fair and will do her best to work with you, she will often make sure she sees you when you ask and try to come up with a plan you can achieve.

You will need to be motivated to take the responsibility on yourself to make the changes. While staff will do their best, they do not offer NG feeding (which in many ways is a good thing!) and sometimes meal time support was lacking, as well as, there not being much (if any) support after meals.

The group programme is mostly filled with OT where you go to other buildings with patients from other wards and can do activities like art and woodwork. It's helpful to take your mind off the food and while it may not necessarily "help" in recovery, at least it provides a distraction.

The actual therapy I found was where it fell short. It is very limited in the approach/ content and I found it quite textbook based which isn't suitable for everyone. There also isn't a lot of options when it comes to 1:1 therapy since only CRT and CREST (emotional regulation) are used, again, not suitable for everyone. I didn't find my consultant particularly helpful but then other patients did so it depends on the individual.

Overall, it was a positive experience so please don't be put off by negative reviews!