Nutrition is everybody’s business, writes professional development lead dietitian Hannah Style

“People enduring severe mental illness are disproportionately affected by both malnutrition (being underweight) and overweight/obesity, as well as diabetes, all of which pose clinical risks. 

Since I became the professional development lead dietitian in ELFT nearly two years ago, I am delighted to see matters of nutrition and hydration being prioritised across the Trust. Starting as a small group of silo-ed practitioners mostly in Eating Disorder services, we have grown in response to the growing need. Collaborating with both the Physical Health Group and the Public Health team, the dietitians have worked tirelessly to ensure that preventing diet-related diseases is identified as strategic priority for the Trust.  

The dietitians launched the training module on Nutrition Screening in January this year, and have worked with the digital team to embed the nutrition-screening tool into medical recording systems. In March, the dietetics workforce grew dramatically as ELFT welcomed five new dietitians to provide services in mental health inpatients settings, forensics, and learning disabilities in North East London and Luton and Bedfordshire. Although there has been a notable increase in appropriate referrals to the dietitians, we remain the most under-represented therapy in the Trust and need the help of referrers in completing the nutrition-screening tool effectively. 

Building close links with catering leads, service users and quality improvement advisors, we are ready to launch the Nutrition Steering Group which will discuss all things food and fluid. We look forward to partnering with everyone who is keen to champion diet-related disease prevention, and advocate for our service users’ nutrition.”