Care and treatment of eating disorders: national specification

Glossary

This Specification, wherever possible, uses generic terminology that can be applied across all eating disorder providers and services.

Throughout the document, we refer to organisations implementing the Specification which is inclusive of NHS boards and where relevant these apply to third and independent sector too.

The term representative refers to any person that an individual experiencing care chooses to be involved in their care and support. This includes but is not limited to, next of kin, a power of attorney, carers, family, parents, or an independent advocate.

The term family and/or carers is inclusive of parents, carers, family, friends, and partners.

The term co-occurring considerations has been purposely used to acknowledge that this may be a more appropriate descriptor than comorbidity for some populations such as pregnancy, autistic individuals, etc.

The term living/lived experience refers to individuals with current or past experience of an eating disorder.

The term all-age refers to the full age range, from birth through to older adults.

The term holistic assessment refers to an assessment process which takes into consideration the overall health of an individual including physical, psychological, social, spiritual needs and levels of associated risk and functioning.

The term multi-disciplinary is used to describe a care team involved in the support and/or treatment of individuals that is made up of a variety of professionals.