Abuse, whether verbal, physical, emotional or sexual, leave the same scars. Thereafter, patients go into Partial Care where they live out evenings and weekends, but return to the Centre for weekdays to appraise their new hard won coping mechanisms. If required, because of many years of entrenchment of the disease, a further twelve months of 'Aftercare' is available to enable progress to be consolidated sufficiently to hold down an occupation, and to consolidate normal living patterns. It is pointless to rehabilitate someone to do nothing . Work is essential to health and self esteem.
Successful patients are the ones who work hard to complete the programme.
A 24 hour help-line is available for patients who need support, when , for example, unforeseen events in their lives happen to them. The disease is very secretive. On first contact with a doctor there may well not be time or opportunity for the discussion of eating disorder issues, which are usually profound, to be elucidated and evaluated, let alone dealt with. For the successful management of eating disorders there is a fundamental requirement of very special people, working as a multi-disciplinary professional team, expressing the Christian values of love, compassion, patience, and kindness. The staff of the International Eating Disorders Centre espouses these values and goals.