Professionals survey - barriers and facilitators related to setting up an intensive community or day service

Background

Following the publication of our report on intensive community and day treatments for eating disorders in 2024 called ‘There’s No Place Like Home’, we have been working on a campaign to see our recommendations implemented across the UK, ultimately working towards an increase in provision of such services for all patients who could benefit. 

Intensive community and day services provide an increased frequency of contact with clinicians, allowing people to remain at home whilst they’re in treatment, and providing a pathway in between traditional outpatient treatment and inpatient care. 

Our evidence review found that these approaches support sustainable recovery, while generally being preferable to patients and more empowering to families when compared to inpatient care. It found that intensive community and day treatments are key to shifting care closer to home - minimising the number of patients that need disruptive and costly inpatient treatment, while reducing lengths of stay for those that do. 

The campaign

We’ve been working alongside services to learn what works and what doesn’t when setting up a service, and what the barriers are to setting one up. We’ll use these insights to develop a toolkit for areas looking to set up a service. 

This survey provides more details on the topics we’re looking to include in the toolkit. Example themes include the types of data needed for a business case, addressing issues related to cost (including capital), and virtual vs hybrid models.  

Who we want to hear from

If you’ve got professional experience of working in eating disorder services or supporting patients with eating disorders, we want to hear from you on:

  • What works (and what doesn’t) in the setup and delivery of intensive community and day services if you have professional experience of one in any capacity
  • What you or the area you work in (or have worked in) would need to set up an intensive community or day service if you don’t have professional experience of one
We know services are stretched and want to make this as easy as possible to fill in, and so have kept the questions as open as we can so you can tailor your answers to your experiences.  

The survey will remain open until Monday 20 October at 09:00.

It should take around 15 minutes to complete but please take as long as you need.

Data protection

By submitting answers to questions in this survey, you give consent for your data to be used in line with our privacy statement.  

Direct quotes may be used by Beat with a pseudonym (false name), and we would only include quotes if they did not include any information that might identify you. If you would prefer for direct quotes not to be used, then there is an opportunity to opt-out of this before completing the survey.   

Support

You can call the Beat Helpline on 0808 801 0677, or you can get in touch with a Beat advisor via email or webchat. The helpline is open from 3pm-8pm, Monday to Friday. Beat offers support and information to people with eating disorders, those who support them and professionals. For details of Beat's Helpline and other support services, please click here.  

For crisis support, the Samaritans telephone helpline is open 24/7 at 116 123. You can also text SHOUT on 85258, which is also open 24/7.   

In England, Scotland, and Wales you can call NHS 111 and select Option 2 for 24/7 mental health crisis support. In Northern Ireland you can call Lifeline for free on 0808 808 8000, which is also open 24/7.  
Before you start





The questions in this section are about your professional experiences of an intensive community and/or day service/s.



























Contact Information