FREED (First episode Rapid Early intervention for Eating Disorders)

The health innovation networks, including Health Innovation KSS, supported mental health teams across England to speed up diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders in young people aged 16 to 25 through FREED.

What is FREED?
FREED (First episode Rapid Early intervention for Eating Disorders), is a model developed by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. This is an evidence-based, specialist care package for 16 to 25-year-olds with a first episode eating disorder of less than three years’ duration. Broadly based on the early intervention model for psychosis, it overcomes barriers to early treatment and recovery and provides highly coordinated early care, with a central focus on reducing the duration of an untreated eating disorder.

What are the outcomes we aimed to achieve?

• Earlier intervention and treatment of eating disorders in young people
• Reduction in the length of time young people have untreated eating disorders
• Reduction in waiting times, day/in-patient admissions and bed days
• Cost savings through reduced use of healthcare services, in particular reduced need for day/in-patient admissions.

FREED inequalities toolkit 
Health Innovation KSS launched the FREED Inequalities Toolkit in partnership with Unity Insights. The toolkit is resource to help healthcare professionals working in eating disorders to measure and understand inequalities in eating disorders through the FREED programme. You can download the toolkit here.

Health inequalities are said to exist when individuals with a social disadvantage have less access to effective treatment and relevant support, leading them to experience poor treatment and quality of care. The FREED Inequalities Toolkit aims to help mental health teams to better understand the demographics and subsequent needs of young people living with an eating disorder in their area. Identifying areas where health inequalities are more prominent can lead to improvements in the quality of care received and in the service delivery.

The toolkit will help professionals delivering the FREED programme to better understand:

• How to effectively measure inequalities and the steps to sustain and embed a ‘health inequalities focus’ to support better care
• How to measure inequalities (including demographic and process and outcome metrics)
• Who are the key stakeholders to engage with to help ensure the measurement of relevant data

To find out more, please contact Becca Randell, Implementation Lead.

To learn more about the outcomes of the FREED programme across the South East and Dorset, check out this Flashcard.

In July 2022 the NELFT’s Enhanced Freed Service was launched.